Geneva, December 1, 2011 (Washington DC, November 30, 2011 8pm) – Remittance flows to developing countries are expected to total $351 billion this year, and worldwide remittances, including those to h... Show More +igh-income countries, will reach $483 billion [corrected from $406 billion on December 5] for the current calendar year, according to a newly updated World Bank brief on global migration and remittances. The top recipients of officially recorded remittances, estimated for 2011, are India ($58 billion), China ($57 billion), Mexico ($24 billion), and the Philippines ($23 billion). Other large recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Lebanon. While the economic slowdown is dampening employment prospects for migrant workers in some high-income countries, global remittances, nevertheless, are expected to stay on a growth path and, by 2014, are forecast to reach $593 billion [corrected from $515 billion on December 5]. Of that, $441 billion will flow to developing countries, according to the latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released today at the fifth meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Geneva. “Despite the global economic crisis that has impacted private capital flows, remittance flows to developing countries have remained resilient, posting an estimated growth of 8 percent in 2011,” said Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank’s Development Prospects Group. “Remittance flows to all developing regions have grown this year, for the first time since the financial crisis.” High oil prices have helped provide a cushion for remittances to Central Asia from Russia and to South and East Asia from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Also, a depreciation of currencies of some large migrant-exporting countries (including Mexico, India and Bangladesh) created additional incentives for remittances as goods and services in these countries became cheaper in U.S. dollar terms. Remittance flows to four of the six World Bank-designated developing regions grew faster than expected --- by 11 percent to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 10.1 percent to South Asia, 7.6 percent to East Asia and Pacific and 7.4 percent to Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the difficult economic conditions in Europe and other destinations of African migrants. In contrast, growth in remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean, at 7 percent, was lower than expected due to continuing weakness in the U.S. economy, while the Middle East and North Africa, affected by civil conflict and unrest related to the “Arab Spring”, registered the slowest growth (2.6 percent) among developing regions. The Bank expects continued growth in remittance flows going forward, by 7.3 percent in 2012, 7.9 percent in 2013 and 8.4 percent in 2014. There are, however, some serious downside risks to the Bank’s outlook for international remittance and migration flows. Persistent unemployment in Europe and the U.S. is affecting employment prospects of existing migrants and hardening political attitudes toward new immigration. Volatile exchange rates and uncertainty about the direction of oil prices also present further risks to the outlook for remittances. More recently, some of the GCC countries, which are critically dependent on migrant workers, are considering tighter quotas for migrant workers to protect jobs for their own citizens. “Such policies may impact remittance flows to developing countries in the longer term,” said Dilip Ratha, Manager of the Bank’s Migration and Remittances Unit and a co-author of the Migration and Development Brief. “But in the medium-term the risk of disruption to these flows is relatively low.” Remittance flows would receive a further boost if the global development community achieves the agreed objective of reducing global average remittance costs by 5 percentage points in 5 years (the ’5 by 5’ objective of the G8 and the G20). Remittance costs have fallen steadily from 8.8 percent in 2008 to 7.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011 due to increasing competition in large volume remittance corridors such as UK-Nigeria and UAE-India. However, remittance costs continue to remain high, especially in Africa and in small nations where remittances provide a life line to the poor. “In addition to streamlining regulations governing remittance service providers, there is a pressing need to improve data on remittance market size at the national and bilateral corridor level,” said Ratha. “That will stimulate market competition and also help in more accurate monitoring of progress towards the ‘5 by 5’ objective.” The World Bank has made considerable strides in developing financing instruments for leveraging migration and remittances for national development purposes. Diaspora bonds can be a powerful financial instrument for mobilizing diaspora savings to finance specific public and private sector projects, as well as to help improve the debt profile of the destination country. The Bank has established a Task Force on the Implementation of Diaspora Bonds to facilitate the provision of technical assistance to developing country governments. “The Bank now houses considerable expertise in this area and we look forward to working with client governments in developing alternative sources of financing for development projects,” said Ratha. Show Less -

WASHINGTON, November 28, 2011—As the United Nations conference on climate change opens in South Africa, a new World Bank study demonstrates that women, when fully empowered, can be an important force ... Show More +for change as countries and citizens grapple with the impacts of climate change and prepare to adapt to them. World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development Rachel Kyte said a growing body of evidence shows that women tend to be disproportionately more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change compared to men. Because of their vulnerability – to more frequent and more extreme natural disasters like cyclones, floods, and droughts – it’s vital that women play a more central role in building their communities’ climate resilience. “We are seeing time and time again that when women are empowered to play leadership roles within their communities, the whole community benefits from better preparedness for extreme weather events,” Kyte said. “It's smart economics, smart business, smart planning, and smart design to look at challenges with women’s realities in mind." One example of this comes from Bangladesh. In 1991, Cyclone Gorky killed 140,000 people in that country. Deaths of women outnumbered deaths of men by a ratio of 14 to 1. Through the government’s intensive efforts to increase women’s involvement in preparedness – including providing women-only spaces in storm shelters and getting women more involved as community mobilizers – the number of deaths in a similar cyclone event in 2007, saw the gender gap in mortality rates shrink to 5:1. “Now women are acting as powerful agents of change in Bangladesh,” Kyte said. “Women are getting the message out ahead of cyclones through early warning messages to other women in the community, encouraging them to use cyclone shelters. It’s not only had a dramatic effect in reducing the gender differential in those who are dying in cyclones, but it has also improved cyclone preparedness overall.” In the paper, entitled “Gender and Climate Change: Three Things You Should Know”, the World Bank underscores the importance of gender equality for effective and equitable action on climate change. The study refers to examples in India where poor women in drought-prone states like Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have improved their social and economic opportunities through self-help groups that have linked together to increase their bargaining power. Over time, these institutional platforms that have grown up around improved livelihoods can be used to build climate resilience, including accessing advice for dealing with drought and building better watershed management structures. The paper’s author, Lead Social Development Specialist Robin Mearns, says the key to ensuring gender equality is ensuring equal access to resources and opportunities for everyone. “Women very often don’t enjoy the same rights or the same socio-economic status as men and that structural disadvantage means that they are often more vulnerable than men to the impacts of the same climate or hazard events,” he said. In developing countries, projects aimed at addressing climate change or improving energy access can have important benefits for women if gender considerations are factored into early planning. For example, a new Bus Rapid Transit project in Lagos, Nigeria has helped cut carbon emissions in that city by 20 percent. A gender analysis undertaken ahead of the project highlighted the need for providing well-lit bus shelters and other safety measures for women to improve their likely use of the system. Now, women are significant users of public transport, improving their participation in the local economy. The paper also highlights the important decisions that billions of women make every day that influence the amount of carbon that is released into the atmosphere. Women’s choices around cooking fuels, cooking technology and the foods to cook all have an important bearing on carbon emissions. “Low-emissions development pathways can be more effective and more equitable where they are designed using a gender-informed approach,” said Mearns. Show Less -

Adds World Bank Climate Change Envoy Andrew Steer: "This Climate Change Knowledge Portal enables ministers, development institutions, and non-governmental organizations in developing countries to... Show More + see within minutes what’s going to happen 30 or 40 years from now, based on the best scientific modeling that exists in the world. It’s a great tool for opening up discussion on the issues."Opening Climate Data ‘Increasingly Critical’In the past, a wealth of raw data on climate has been under-used, often ending up as static PDFs or on specialists’ hard drives. The new Climate Portal aims to make it easier to access and use climate information from various sources, including the Bank’s open data catalogue."Opening climate data will encourage experts and innovators, wherever they may be, to come up with new tools for analyzing and managing the effects of climate change,” says Shaida Badiee, director of the Bank’s Development Data Group. “The combination of open data and innovative tools will be an excellent resource for countries as they develop plans for adapting to climate change."The portal allows users to query, map, compare, chart and summarize climate and climate-related information, as well as to visualize the effects of changing patterns of rainfall and temperature. It aids government ministries and World Bank teams in 130 countries where adapting to climate change is a development priority.Modeling Risk in MozambiqueThe Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), a partner of the Climate Portal, is supporting this effort through its Open Data for Resilience Initiative in 31 countries. GFDRR and government ministries are conducting disaster risk analyses, creating climate data websites, and developing applications to model risk."Making data available is one of the crucial steps toward building resilience to climate change," says GFDRR Manager Saroj Jha. "Open data enables countries to develop the kinds of counter measures needed to deal with extreme events and which must be at the core of every country’s policy and planning."GFDRR expects 15 countries will have climate open data websites by May, and possibly 31 will have them by the end of 2012. Mozambique is likely to be first. The country already suffers from droughts, cyclones and coastal flooding, and is worried about projections that rainfall will decrease during the primary growing season.Mozambique is one of many countries in the world facing such challenges. Mozambique’s disaster management agency and GFDRR are in the midst of building “climate decision” tools targeted to Mozambique’s needs, but which could be made freely available to other countries once they are developed, says Robert Soden of GFDRR’s technical Labs group.One beneficiary could be the Horn of Africa, where the World Bank has committed $1.88 billion to help the region cope with severe drought and build drought resilience. The Bank, with GFDRR and other partners in the effort, including Google, the World Food Program, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), met earlier this month to discuss sharing data. A new Horn of Africa data website will be accessible through the Climate Change Knowledge Portal and the Open Data site."Because there is so much unknown and there is so much data out there, it’s going to be really important that the data is accessible," said Jason Kessler of NASA. "To be able to really meaningfully study and understand what’s going on, it’s going to require as much information as people can get their hands on.""The Climate Change Knowledge Portal is a one-stop shop and will be an invaluable tool both for the Bank team and developing countries alike," says Marianne Fay, chief economist in the Bank’s Sustainable Development Network. "The portal provides an ideal web-based platform to assist in knowledge development, planning and knowledge sharing for green development and resilience to climate change." Show Less -

WASHINGTON, November 16, 2011 – The World Bank and the African Union have taken steps to lower the cost of sending remittances to and within Africa by launching an online database that will help incre... Show More +ase transparency about prices and stimulate greater competition among service providers. 120 million remittance senders and receivers in Africa can now benefit from increased transparencyThe database, Send Money Africa, is a years-in-the-making partnership between the Bank, the African Union Commission, and donors. Through its interface, migrants can compare the cost that remittance service providers charge to send a particular amount to a given country.“Send Money Africa will stimulate competition among the service providers and ultimately induce a reduction of the costs. As a result, remittance senders and recipients will benefit from transparent, efficient, less costly remittance services,” said Richard Cambridge, Manager of the Africa Diaspora Program in the World Bank’s Africa Region. The World Bank estimates that about 120 million people in Africa receive money from about 30 million relatives and friends who left their home country, for a total of US$ 40 billion a year. However, when it comes to choosing which operator to use to send money to Africa, too often migrants do not have the necessary data to make an informed choice.According to the World Bank “Remittance Prices Worldwide” database, Africa is the most expensive region of the world to send money to. The average cost of sending money to Africa is over 12 percent of the amount sent, compared to a global average cost of 9 percent.“By virtue of being countercyclical, remittances play a crucial role in poor households,” said Amb. Olawale Maiyegun, Director of Social Affairs of the African Union Commission. “For this reason, any reduction in the cost of the transfer would result in more money remaining in the pockets of the migrants and their families.” At present, Send Money Africa provides data on the cost of sending and receiving relatively small amounts of money (the equivalent of US$200 and 500) from 15 major sending countries worldwide as well as in Africa to 27 African receiving countries. Research has shown that if the cost of sending money could be reduced by 5 percentage points relative to the total amount sent, remittance recipients in developing countries would receive over US$16 billion more each year than they do now. In Africa, where remittances represent the second largest source of foreign inflows after foreign direct investment, this added income could provide recipients and their communities with more opportunities for consumption, savings, and investment in local economies.The database also contains useful information on the methods that can be used to send money, the actual amount of money that is received in local currency by families and friends in the home country, the time needed before the remittance is available to the recipient, the places where the money can be collected, the exchange rates applied to the transaction, and more.Send Money Africa is published by the Payment Systems Development Group of the World Bank Financial and Private Sector Development Vice Presidency, in the context of the African Institute for Remittances (AIR) Project, which is managed by the Africa Diaspora Program unit of the World Bank Africa Region Vice Presidency.The AIR Project is funded by the European Commission and implemented by the World Bank in collaboration with the African Union Commission and its member states. It aims to facilitate the creation of the Institute and develop the capacity of the member states of the African Union, remittance senders and recipients, and other stakeholders to implement concrete strategies and operational instruments to use remittances as development tools for poverty reduction. Show Less -

At a GlanceDuring the past few decades, women’s and girls’ education and health levels have improved greatly. More than 37 million girls have been enrolled in primary school since 1995, Since 197... Show More +0, average life expectancy for women increased by 15 to 20 years.But women’s economic opportunities are still limited.In low-income countries, women consistently trail men in formal labor force participation, access to credit, entrepreneurship rates, income levels, and inheritance and ownership rights.In low-income countries, the female labor force shrunk from 53 percent in 1980 to 49 percent in 2005, while men’s employment rate remained steady at 86 percent.Life’s chances should not be preordained at birth. This inequality is also bad economics: under-investing in women puts a brake on poverty reduction and limits economic and social development.Recent HighlightsThe World Bank launched Applying Gender Action Plan Lessons: A Three-Year Road Map for Gender Mainstreaming (2011- 2013), which aims to direct more of the Bank’s technical assistance, projects and programs towards giving women better economic opportunity. The Road Map draws on lessons from the implementation of a “Gender Action Plan” 2007 – 2011, which targeted World Bank operations in sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, private sector and financial development in making them better at improving women’s economic opportunity.For the first time, the 2012 World Development Report—the Bank’s annual flagship report—will focus on gender equality and development.Gender was made a special theme of the Bank’s $49.2 billion fund for the poorest, the International Development Association (IDA), for the coming three-year period.What We DoThe World Bank supports gender equality through many different interventions, such as increasing access for girls and young women to quality schooling, and helping increase access to health services. The World Bank also supports efforts to increase women’s economic opportunity.Why We Do ItUnder-investing in women limits economic growth and slows down poverty reduction, which is one reason that countries with greater gender equality tend to have lower poverty rates. Evidence links increases in women’s productivity and earnings to lower household poverty and to better health and education outcomes for household members, especially children.Some Results from the Gender Action Plan implementationIn Senegal and Tanzania the Gender Action Plan complemented the IFC’s Gender Entrepreneurship Markets’ work in establishing lines of credit for women bankers and entrepreneurs. In Tanzania, an IFC credit line of US$5 million with Exim Bank resulted in loans to 10 small and medium enterprises and to Sero Lease, a woman-owned micro-leasing company, with an outreach to 30,000 women.In Lao PDR, the House Wiring Assistance Program was designed to enable poor rural households, which are disproportionately female-headed, to access electricity. The project offers these households a concessionary credit of US$80 million to cover the high cost of connecting to the electricity grid. The implementation of the pilot project, Power to the Poor, was launched in September 2008. Connection rates in the 20 pilot villages increased from 78 percent to 95 percent overall, and from 63 percent to 90 percent for female-headed households.A GAP-funded study in Ethiopia examined a program that issued 20 million land use certificates to six million households. It found that that by providing space for both spouses’ names and photos on the certificate, women’s registration for land ownership increased significantly, with women reporting improved economic and social status. Evidence of the positive impact of this cost-effective measure influenced a decision to support a US$30 million nationwide program that increased land-registration and certification throughout the country. Show Less -

IDA Credit: US$10 Million EquivalentTerms: Maturity = 40 years Grace = 10 yearsProject ID: P119432Project Description: The project will support smallholder farmers in targeted areas of Lesotho, ... Show More +with the goal of helping them exploit opportunities to increase their productivity and diversify into market-oriented agriculture. Show Less -

IDA Grant: US$13 Million EquivalentProject ID: P123199Project Description: The project will help develop and sustain an environmentally sound, socially responsible, and financially viable framework fo... Show More +r the Metolong Dam and Water Supply Program (MDWSP). It also aims to increase the quantity of safe, bulk water supplied to Teyateyaneng, and to strengthen institutions and related instruments in the water sector. Show Less -

Launched at the height of the global financial crisis, the Joint IFI Action Plan and the European Banking Coordination ‘Vienna’ Initiative (EBCI) provided a significant financial contribution to rescu... Show More +e packages in the Emerging Europe region, and a critical coordination mechanism for national reform programs and venue for policy dialogue among key stakeholders in the region. The unprecedented level of cooperation was a key contribution to restoring market confidence in Emerging European banking systems. It illustrated the important counter-cyclical role played by the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) during the financial crisis.Joint IFI Action PlanThe Joint IFI Action Plan, announced in February 2009 at the height of the global financial crisis, was sponsored by the World Bank Group – the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD); and the European Investment Bank (EIB).This initiative aimed at providing EUR 24.5 billion in support of the financial sector in the region through credit lines, funding for recapitalization of banks, and development policy loans to support financial sector reforms. Total commitments under the Plan, which came to an end as scheduled in February 2011, reached EUR 33.2 billion.Of this total, the World Bank Group contributed EUR 9.6 billion – above the initial commitment under the plan of EUR 7.5 billion. This included EUR 5.2 billion from the IBRD, EUR 2.4 billion from the IFC, and EUR 2 billion from MIGA. The EBRD contributed EUR 8.1 billion and the EIB EUR 15.5 billion.Vienna InitiativeA parallel initiative, known as the Vienna Initiative – also known as the European Banking Coordination ‘Vienna’ Initiative (EBCI) – came into existence in early 2009 as a venue for bringing together country authorities, official multilateral donors, and Western European banks with large exposures in Emerging Europe to discuss the economic programs being implemented by countries, with financial support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission (EC), the World Bank, and the EBRD.The Initiative aimed to prevent large-scale uncoordinated withdrawal of cross-border bank groups from Emerging Europe. It contributed to ensuring, through formal commitments, that Western European parent bank groups maintained their exposure to Emerging Europe (in particular, in Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia) and recapitalized their subsidiaries as and where needed.The initiative also had a positive effect in countries that did not have IMF-supported programs, as it was used as a venue for discussions between private and official creditors, with the participation of country authorities and banking sector supervisors.The Vienna Initiative has now been expanded into a forum to discuss important banking sector issues in Emerging Europe and propose solutions to policy makers. Two committees were created in 2010 to work respectively on Local Currency Finance Development (chaired by the EBRD) and on Enhancing Absorption of EU Structural Funds in Emerging Europe (chaired by the EC and the World Bank). Both committees received support from the World Bank Group and have largely completed their work. Two new committees have been created in 2011 – one on how to deal with the large rise in Nonperforming Loans (NPLs) across Emerging Europe (chaired by the World Bank and the IMF) and the other on the challenges of implementing Basel III (chaired by the World Bank and the EBRD). Show Less -

HANOI, VIETNAM – Project Predator, an initiative to protect and save the world’s last surviving wild tigers, was unveiled today at the 80th INTERPOL General Assembly, a gathering of global law enforce... Show More +ment support from the organization’s 190 member countries. Created by INTERPOL, Project Predator unites the efforts of police, customs and wildlife officials in the 13 countries in Asia where wild tigers can still be found. This new partnership under the Global Tiger Initiative brings together officials from the 13 tiger range countries, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the World Bank, the Smithsonian Institution and INTERPOL. “Unscrupulous poachers are threatening the few remaining wild tigers with extinction, and we must all work together to protect this iconic species. Through Project Predator, INTERPOL is again showing this commitment and determination to protect not only tigers, but the wider wildlife and ecosystems at risk from criminals,” said David Higgins, Manager of INTERPOL’s Environmental Crime Programme. The Project Predator initiative will provide capacity building to law enforcement agencies to combat tiger crimes, strengthening their ability to work with wildlife officials using advanced, intelligence-led methods of investigation. In addition, the initiative will encourage countries to establish and resource National Tiger Crime Task Forces. In a video address to the INTERPOL General Assembly in Hanoi, Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group and founder of the Global Tiger Initiative, said, “I’m particularly proud of the catalytic role being played by the Global Tiger Initiative, and the Bank Group’s early contribution toward Project Predator. This innovative effort among tiger range countries – including right here in Vietnam – will reduce trafficking in tiger parts, with the add-on effect of reducing other wildlife crime in Asia.” He further urged leaders “to give their criminal justice systems the power and resources to protect wildlife, forests, and fisheries from those who are plundering the planet’s natural capital and countries’ living heritage.” Due to poaching and habitat degradation and fragmentation, the estimated 100,000 tigers that roamed Asia in 1900 have now dwindled to fewer than 3,500 across the tiger range countries. “If poaching and trafficking continue at present rates, we may have a generation that will never know what a live, wild tiger is. Project Predator will enable police, customs and wildlife officials to share information they’ve gathered to keep tigers from disappearing forever,” said Frank Donovan, Mission Director for USAID/Vietnam. Poachers have decimated the world’s tiger population to feed a large, illicit market in tiger fur, bone and other parts. Illegal trade and trafficking in tiger parts and products is rampant across international borders, making enforcement of laws against it a challenge. The UK’s Natural Environment Minister, Richard Benyon, said, “The UK Government has consistently supported efforts to protect tigers in the wild, so I’m delighted that we have been able to lend our support to Project Predator. Illegal poaching and trafficking continue to threaten this much loved species and this global problem needs a global response if we are ever to see their numbers recover in the wild.” At present, wildlife officials in most tiger range countries are poorly staffed and under equipped to fight wildlife crime on the ground, and are often outnumbered by well-armed poachers. “The Smithsonian Institution is proud to be part of this international effort to improve the law enforcement capacity of tiger range countries,” said Steve Monfort, Director of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI). “INTERPOL’s Project Predator will provide an excellent collaborative platform for protected area managers and other law enforcement professionals to share the kind of intelligence essential to track down and destroy illegal wildlife trade networks. This will be a perfect complement to SCBI’s efforts to help improve the effectiveness of patrolling on the front lines, within protected areas, and stop the flow of poached animals into the marketplace.” The program will move into an operational phase quickly with a meeting of senior police and customs officials from tiger range countries scheduled to be held in Bangkok, Thailand, from February 13 to 14, 2012, to identify and implement a plan of action. INTERPOL is organizing this workshop under the auspices of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), with a strategic goal and long term planning to strongly engage these officials in efforts to curb the illegal trade in tigers and other threatened species. In November 2010, top political leaders from the tiger range countries convened in St. Petersburg, Russia, to adopt the St. Petersburg Declaration on Tiger Conservation and a comprehensive Global Tiger Recovery Program, an unprecedented commitment to double the number of tigers in the wild by 2022. The multi-country, multi-partner Global Tiger Initiative helped to spearhead this new united global action starting in 2008. The launch of Project Predator marks an important milestone in scaling up the efforts of tiger range countries to increase the level of cooperation and information-sharing between wildlife officials, customs agencies and police forces in many Asian countries. Show Less -

MR. FERGUSON: Hi, good morning. Alex Ferguson from the World Bank. Thanks for joining us today. World Bank President Robert Zoellick is going to brief you on this week's G20 meetings. Just for b... Show More +ackground, you should all have been sent his Washington Post piece that was published on Sunday. After his statement, Mr. Zoellick will take a few questions. When we do get to the questions, please identify yourself and your organization before asking a question. All of Mr. Zoellick's remarks will be on the record. Mr. Zoellick, please, go ahead. MR. ZOELLICK: Okay. Thank you, Alex. Well, thanks, all, for joining us. We're looking towards the G20 Summit this weekend, and the package developed by the Eurozone leaders last week was a positive step, but there's much still to do. What's most important now is not to waste the moment. Markets are responding now to readings of confidence as much as pure finance, and the confidence challenge is now focused on governments and institutions, not only in the European Union. Market confidence remains very fragile, and we saw it evaporate in August after the EU agreement in July. The global economy is still very much at risk from faltering economies in developing countries, and the Eurozone deal has bought some time, and the challenge is how to use the time. I believe it would be very useful if the G20 leaders can send a strong signal on follow-through after the Eurozone announcement so as to sustain and build confidence, and I urge G20 leaders not to permit these primary messages to fray into tactical political positioning on secondary issues. The world economy is still wobbling on the edge right now, and it could tip very quickly if momentum isn't maintained and built upon. The one ray of economic light in this downturn has been emerging markets. Developing countries have accounted for two-thirds of global growth over the past five years. But as we saw in August and September, they also can be hit when developed countries trip up. We saw equity markets drop over 20 percent, bond spreads increase, currencies were tumbling, started to affect trade, and the real risk was if the slowdown in confidence in the European Union and United States spread to developing countries, consumer and business confidence and then would affect domestic demand. Now, this has been stemmed somewhat with the Eurozone deal, but people will be looking to this G20 meeting. The World Bank will be seeking to highlight three points: Some fallout from the Eurozone that we need to address; second, a broader growth and jobs agenda; and third, how we can try to stretch resources to assist. So, first, we have to anticipate and help counter some of the second-order effects of the Eurozone arrangement. In particular, European banks are already selling assets and they'll be shrinking lending. Trade finance is a short-term type of loan and it can be run down quickly, but trade finance operations are also labor and operationally intensive. They're not easy to develop substitutes for, and we're already seeing some signs of a shrinking trade finance in West Africa and elsewhere. Now, in 2008 and 2009, the World Bank Group's private sector arm, IFC, launched special trade finance facilities, and we're already activating those to provide support; though, in the area of liquidity, we leveraged it through private sector partnerships, and some of those institutions may be less able to provide liquidity themselves this time. In addition, southeastern Europe, the Balkans, Eastern Europe are at particular risk of credit crunch in the European Union banks, and I've been working already with Thomas Mirow of the EBRD on trying to replicate the Vienna Initiative that we offered last time to make sure that there was credit support for those countries. The Middle East and North African countries rely heavily on exports to the European Union. So, the slowdown in the EU comes at a very sensitive time given political developments. We can help here, too, but we'll need good cooperation with the European Union. And there will be a greater temptation for protectionism in various guises from all countries. The best defense is a market-opening offense, but unfortunately trade liberalization has been stalled. Second, developed and developing countries alike need to keep their eye on the fundamentals of future growth in jobs. Macroeconomic space for all countries is limited and so, what I'm referring to are structural reforms of tax policy, entitlements, labor, competition, investment, innovation, infrastructure. In developing countries, the growth agenda shows the interconnection with food security, infrastructure, inclusive policies. These are not peripheral issues and especially in a fragile and crisis-prone world where--needs of human safety nets as well as financial safety nets. In the area of food security, this involves both increasing production and productivity as well as dealing with price volatility. Now, we've released a Food Price Watch today which shows that the index is up 19 percent over a year ago, even though it dropped somewhat in September, and it had revealed that we're in a period of continued serious volatility, which is especially high in low-income countries. Now, you may recall that in June IFC, our private sector arm, launched a new agricultural price risk facility to help producers and consumers in developing countries cope with volatility. We had the first facility with JP Morgan to assist countries in Latin America, and today we're bringing to our Board a $100 million facility with SocGen of France to help producers and buyers in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. And with that amount offinancing, we should be able to leverage hedges many times that amount. So, pending Board action, there should be a separate release later today. We also, at the G20, have been discussing the push for infrastructure development, cutting costs of remittances and linking them to savings in credit vehicles, developing local currency bond markets, and we're going to keep pushing for the spread of effective focused social safety nets for all countries. The poorest and most vulnerable are in particular need of a cushion in times like these. Last week, I was in the Philippines where I saw one of the more recent of the over 40 Conditional Cash Transfer programs that the World Bank has helped support around the world, building on the initial programs in Mexico and Brazil, and these are impressive because they often deal with 10 to 15 percent of the population at the bottom for about a half of one percent of GDP. And third, we'll be talking about how we can try to stretch resources. The World Bank has worked with the regional evaluation banks to assess what we could provide over fiscal years '12 and '13. We're almost halfway through Fiscal Year '12 because that starts on July 1. So, this is over a two-year period. We've estimated with the regional development banks we could provide somewhat over $200 billion in financing, drawing on a full set of tools. This includes the ultra-concessionary financing such as IDA, our regular borrowing, private sector, the World Bank Group amount of that is about 115 billion of the over 200 billion. And we also discussed with the G20 that, if we could get some more flexibility with maturity and pricing of loans, I believe we can even provide more support if needed. So, at Cannes, the countries need to follow through on the Eurozone plan, they need to have attention to growth and job strategies, and they need to recognize that developing countries are now a key source of solutions to the world and then opportunity with the right investments and policies. We need to make the world safer for people, not just systems. Pleased to take your questions. MR. FERGUSON: Thanks. And we'll take your questions. As I said earlier, can you please identify yourself and your organization before asking your question. Can we now have the first question. OPERATOR: If you'd like to ask a question from the phone, press star one, please unmute your phone and record your name. To withdraw your question, press star two. Once again, it's star one to ask a question, and you do need to record your name. Please standby for the first question. MR. FERGUSON: Can we have the first question, please. OPERATOR: The first question is from Sudeep Reddy from The Wall Street Journal. QUESTION: Hi, Mr. Zoellick. How would you assess the latest European debt plan from a growth perspective, in particular what should some of the European countries that are under severe fiscal constraints such as Greece and Italy be doing to boost growth? And secondly, what do you think about how Europe is going about raising money for the Fund, particularly how they continue to pursue emerging market governments to provide money? MR. ZOELLICK: Well, on the first part, I think the Eurozone plan is really primarily focused on short-term liquidity stabilization. So, I actually distinguish it from a structural growth plan. What that plan is designed to try to do is strengthen the banking system, give Greece a chance to recovery by cutting the debt, and multiply the resources of the EFSF so as to help make sure that Spain and Italy can roll over debt while also dealing with Ireland and Portugal and Greece. And so, that, to me, is sort of a classic example of buying time while one still has to work on the overall fundamentals. And that's one reason why--so, my core point is I know how difficult this was to reach. I think they made some very important steps, but my read of the situation is that we're now dealing principally with assessments of market confidence, and market confidence is going to be based on assessments of whether the governments and the institutions follow through. So, to me, the key point is how they're using the time and being able to respond with the overall follow-through of activities. So, I understood this morning that, in the case of Italy, there's going to be a budget process over the course of November to try to package the overall proposal in an up-or-down vote, and that will obviously be watched very closely in terms of trying to see whether Italy can take the appropriate follow-up actions. The types of things that I've been referring to on the growth side have been discussed in national parliaments, but they haven't been so much at the heart of the Eurozone's rescue package, and those go to some of the issues that I mentioned about tax and investment policy and creating a competitive environment, a lot of the things that Germany had done quite successfully over the past years. As for your second question about outreach to others, at least as I've been able to ascertain it, the picture is pretty clear: Europeans are going to have to be the principal agents in solving Europe's problems. Others will be willing to try to be of support. They are going to be principally doing it through the international institutional mechanisms such as the IMF. I think as for the particular use of the EFSF that there are two vehicles that they have discussed: One is a form of an insurance model which is trying to multiply with a, for example, first-loss provision. The second element which would allow others to invest, I think, needs further clarification to have a sense of what risk people would be taking in terms of investing in it. And frankly, Sudeep, from what I've seen is I think some--at least, I'm not referring particularly to your paper, but I think some of the earlier reporting got a little bit ahead of itself in assuming that some of the developing countries would rush in, because I didn't think they would and so far I don't think they have. MR. FERGUSON: Thank you. Can we have the next question, please? OPERATOR: The next question is from Alan Beattie from the Financial Times. QUESTION: Hi, good morning, Mr. Zoellick. You were mentioning the possible impact of the Eurozone crisis on the rest of the world and specifically the developing world. How much independent growth momentum do you think the emerging markets have, I mean, particularly given that, for lots of talk about rebalancing, there still seems to be a lot of dependence in the emerging market world on exports to the U.S. and to Europe? MR. ZOELLICK: Well, I think the interconnections are strong. I think prior to August we did see a multispeed recovery where the emerging markets had recovered quite well, had come back beyond the initial point of the crisis and, if anything, the risk was of overheating. I think the events in August in the Eurozone and, to a degree, the U.S., showed that the effects on financial markets flowed quite quickly to the developing world. So, as I mentioned, equity markets came down to over 20 percent. There has been some recovery with the deal. Bond spreads had gone up about 100 to 180 basis points. They've come back down, again, with the deal. You've seen what's happened in some currency markets. And as I suggested, we already started to see the effect of the slowdown in the trade area. So, and the next category that we were most watchful of was the one that I referred to of, if the confidence that has affected consumers and businesses in the developed world also infected the developing world--and there, it was a little hard to tell. You could see through some of the PMIs that they were starting to show some deterioration, I think, with the Eurozone deal, you've seen some pop-back but, frankly, high degrees of uncertainty. And so, it's the core message that I think coming out of this G20 meeting, people are going to look through to see the follow-through on the principle areas that the Eurozone has outlined, but they're also going to look to see whether there's a tension to the ongoing growth agenda that I mentioned. MR. FERGUSON: Thanks. Can we have the next question, please. OPERATOR: The next question is from Howard Schneider from The Washington Post. QUESTION: Hi, Bob, and thanks for doing this. My question is a little--I want to just sort of step back on the last couple of days, here, you know, the whole ethic of the G20, the whole idea was, you know, coordinated policy across the major economies, and yet you see this intervention by the Bank of Japan now just a couple days before the Summit, you know, without really discussing or coordinating it. And now, you see this call for a referendum in Greece really catching all of the European leaders off guard, a clear example, it seems to me, that they in a sense really don't have control of their own agenda. So, [technical difficulties] two years ago in London, is this group really living up to [technical difficulties]. MR. FERGUSON: Sorry, we lost you the last bit. Can you repeat the last-- QUESTION: I'm saying, just, I mean, isn't it pretty clear that this Group is not living up to its potential--that this forum is not living up to its potential as a place to coordinate these important policy decisions? MR. ZOELLICK: I think we have to see what comes out of this weekend's meeting. I think that the Eurozone arrangement--I know, because I was with the Finance Ministers a week before--was not easily achieved. And I think, as I mentioned, it's an important step, but it's only a step. In the case of Japan, obviously, part of the G20 but not part of the Eurozone discussions, Japan has been intervening modestly over this time period. My own view is that, particularly for the G7, that interventions in a flexible exchange rate system would be better off being coordinated. So, I think that if they haven't been--and I just don't know for sure with all the Finance Ministers, but from the reporting I haven't seen evidence of it--that would be disappointing. In terms of the Greece referendum, that's less of a G20 issue and more of a EU issue and to me it looks like a roll of a dice, and you know, I just--I don't know how the question will be phrased. We don't have the exact timing of the referendum. For certain, it's going to add uncertainty to markets at a time when, I think, people had hoped that the Eurozone deal and the actions to be taken would help to alleviate some of that uncertainty. So, this is an evidence of some of the fundamental problems that have been plaguing Greece throughout the whole process. And so, in that sense, it certainly makes the hill steeper for the G20. MR. FERGUSON: Thank you. Can we have the next question, please. OPERATOR: The next question is from Alessandro Merli from Il Sole. QUESTION: Yes, good morning. I wonder if you can tell us what do you think is missing from the European plan. You talked about rebuilding confidence and stabilizing the situation. This seems to have lasted a little more than 24 hours. Do you think anything in particular was missing there as a tool of reestablish [unclear]-- MR. ZOELLICK: I think it's more a question of the follow-through, and most of the commentators focus on three elements. I focus on five, in part, from some of my discussions with some of the Europeans who have been part of it. First, you have the bank recapitalization. That is, I think, an important step. I think you had an initial positive reaction in terms of some of the bank equities, but it has to be accomplished, as I recall, by about the middle of 2012. So, the devil will be in the details of the execution. Second, you have the multiplication of the EFSF's facilities, and that one was somewhat vaguer about how it was going to be accomplished and, as I mentioned, the idea of using some of the EFSF funds for first loss insurance provision is a viable alternative. The other method, frankly, I think, required clarification, and my sense of it was that the leaders, understandably, wanted to try to take those models and further define them with markets, including potential investors, to see how they could get the greatest effect. Third is the actions that Italy and Spain take themselves. You know, these countries should be able to make it if they continue to take the right actions at home. And so, in that sense, it's linked to the EFSF's ability to help them roll over their debt, but in a world where markets are--depending on confidence--it's going to depend a lot on the governmental actions. And Spain actually has taken a series of significant actions. I think that distinguished itself somewhat from Italy. We'll have to see whether this most recent proposal that I mentioned about a package of reforms during the month of November can be pursued and, if so, whether that can help boost confidence. Fourth, you have the Greek debt, and there will be debates about whether the reduction is deep enough, but it certainly gave Greece a much better chance, and now we have the uncertainty related to the decision the Greeks will have to make in their own referendum. And the fifth element is one that I think is important to connect the immediate to the medium and long term, and that is what some in Germany have discussed as political and fiscal union or, sometimes, in France, is talked about as economic governance, and that is recognizing that these steps fundamentally buy time. What will be the future structure of the European system of fiscal support that complements the monetary union. So, the monetary union as constructed without the fiscal discipline clearly ran into trouble, and markets are well aware of that. So, the question will be what type of political and fiscal union will be built on the Eurozone on top of it. That's not going to be done overnight, but I think people will be looking to see what are the directions and steps that are taken. So, again, I'm not critical of the package. What I'm saying is that the devil will now be in the details of the follow-up, and this is why the G20 leaders shouldn't waste the moment. MR. FERGUSON: Thank you. Can we have the next question, please. OPERATOR: The next question is from Phil Thornton from Emerging Markets. QUESTION: Thank you very much, Mr. Zoellick. Can I just pick up the theme about the role that emerging markets and developing countries can play. You've highlighted their strong level of growth, but a lot of the recommendations you're talking about seem to be quite long-term. Isn't the G20 an excellent opportunity for the emerging markets to really step up to the plate and take the sort of immediate action that was taken by the G20 in London? MR. ZOELLICK: Well, I don't know what actions in particular you have in mind, and remember, what--at least, the way I see things is markets are now looking for a sustained boost of confidence, and I've outlined how the Eurozone could take first steps, but I think there need to be follow-up steps and others need to be taking steps in support of that. So, as I said, I think that if the G20 leaders have the primary message of supporting these steps that the Eurozone has taken plus the pro-growth steps that I referred to in avoiding sort of fraying at the edges with sort of domestic political positioning, that would send a positive signal to markets, and developing countries will be part of that. At the same time, I think the best thing the developing countries can do is to continue to have the pro-growth strategies that they have. They've been the bright light in the picture, and so, they do have a common interest in Europe and the United States and Japan enjoying full recovery. But I don't want to--I don’t think one should raise expectations about what one could expect them to be able to do to help Europe and the United States solve their own problems. And in fact, I think that one of the misleading paths is to assume for any of these countries that somebody else is going to bail you out and solve your own problems. Europe's got to solve its problems, United States has got to solve its problems, Japan's got to solve its problems, and what one wants to avoid is people doing dumb things that will make it harder, such as slipping into protectionism or trade conflicts. But by and large, for the emerging markets, if they can participate in financial support through the IMF arrangements as they have before or through special agreements to borrow, that can be constructive, but I don't think that, for example, in the Eurozone, that people should be looking for a silver bullet from the Chinese when the per capita income in China is about $4,000 a person and it's about $38,000 in Europe. MR. FERGUSON: Thank you. We have time for one more question. OPERATOR: The next question is from Ruben Barrera from Notimex. QUESTION: Yes, thank you for doing this. Mr. Zoellick, I would like to go back to the issue of Greece, and my question is, if--do you think that this position by the Greek authorities to seek a referendum on the bailout could set a bad precedent for a future rescue plan for other countries, either in Europe and other parts of the world? MR. ZOELLICK: Well, ultimately, countries have to make their own decisions here. I mean, my--I guess the theme is whether it's a group of countries or individual countries, they need the political support and they have to take the tough actions. So, I'm not in a place to second-guess the Greek political authorities feeling about what sort of vote of confidence or referendum they need. I did say it's a roll of the dice. If it passes, that could be a positive signal for people. If it fails, it's going to be a mess. And one of my concerns is that, in the meantime, it adds to degrees of uncertainty. Europe can cope with that if it has the additional support and facilities that we've been discussing because Greece is only about 2 percent of the EU's GDP. But at this moment, it adds one other element of uncertainty in what's already a difficult time. MR. FERGUSON: Thank you very much. I'm afraid that's all we've got time for today. So, thank you for calling in and goodbye. MR. ZOELLICK: Thank you. MR. FERGUSON: Thanks, good-bye. Show Less -

Floods in Thailand add further uncertainty. Food crisis in the Horn of Africa continuesWASHINGTON, November 1, 2011–Global food prices remain high and volatile, hitting the poorest countries hardest a... Show More +nd adding to the strains facing the global economy, according to the World Bank Group’s new Food Price Watch released ahead of the G-20 Summit in Cannes, France. While the Bank’s food price index has dropped 5 percent from its February 2011 peak and dipped marginally in September by one percent, it remains 19 percent above its September 2010 levels.“The food crisis is far from over,” said World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick, who has urged the G-20 to put food first. “Prices remain volatile and millions of people around the world are still suffering. The World Bank has been working closely with the French Presidency of the G-20 and our partner international organizations on actions to protect the most vulnerable from the dangers of food price volatility, while also addressing some of its root causes. Let's remember, averting crisis is not just about banks and debt. Millions of people around the world face a daily crisis of hunger and malnutrition. At Cannes, the G-20 can and should take steps to address their needs." The Group of 20 heads of government, who are meeting in Cannes Nov. 3– 4 to discuss the global economy, are expected to endorse a package of concrete actions to improve transparency and policy coordination to detect and correct problems early; to help countries manage price volatility using sound risk management tools; to promote more productive and resilient agriculture; and to get food to the needy fast through emergency regional humanitarian food reserves and agreement not to ban exports of food for World Food Programme. As the world population reaches a staggering 7 billion people, it is more important than ever for the global community to galvanize around actions to improve food security.According to Food Price Watch, a quarterly report, recent floods in Thailand−the worst in 50 years−may add uncertainty in the short run following estimated production losses of between 16 to 24 percent of total production. In the meantime, the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, affecting over 13.3 million people in the region–an additional million since August, and the outlook remains frightening.The report said prices of grains rose 30 percent (September 2010–September 2011), with maize increasing by 43 percent, rice by 26 percent and wheat 16 percent. Soybean oil went up by 26 percent. Over the last quarter, however, an increase of 3 percent in the price of grains was roughly offset by a 3 percent decline in the prices of fats and oils.Volatility, which is higher in low income countries, is expected to persist in the medium term due to multiple global and domestic factors. Structural factors contributing to the volatility include rising populations and changing diets, increasingly intertwined relations between food and energy prices, and increasing production of biofuels.On the other hand, a favorable outlook on supply and stocks is likely to relieve some of the pressure on global food prices. Latest forecasts show global wheat stocks reaching a 10-year high in 2011-12, global production of maize to rise by 4 percent from increased production in Argentina, Brazil, China, Russia, and Ukraine. Global rice output is also likely to get a boost in 2011-12 due to an expected bumper harvest in India following very favorable monsoon rains.These production gains in some markets underscore the critical need to keep international markets open, to get food where it is needed, provide incentives to farmers who expand production, and avoid panic behavior created by export bans.While a troubled global economy could dampen demand and push food prices down, the effect on developing countries would be mixed−hurting food exporting countries and poor producers in rural areas, and benefiting food importers and consumers. The problem, Food Price Watch warns, is that developing countries might have now limited resources to protect vulnerable populations following the economic crisis and stimulus spending.In addition, fears associated with the global economy may affect medium to long-term investments in agricultural research and more productive agricultural techniques, especially amid persistent volatility.Among the ongoing efforts to improve volatility-related information, the G-20 agriculture ministers introduced the Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS), officially launched in September, to increase market transparency on the short-term global food outlook, especially stocks, and to identify abnormal international market conditions in order to prompt early responses.How the World Bank Group is helping to put food firstIn the Horn of Africa, the World Bank Group is providing $1.88 billion to save lives, improve social protection, and foster economic recovery and drought resilience. More than 13 million people are affected by the crisis.A first-of-its-kind World Bank Group risk management product, provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), will enable up to $4 billion in protection from volatile food prices for farmers, food producers, and consumers in developing countries.The Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) is helping some 40 million people through $1.5 billion in support.The World Bank Group is boosting its spending on agriculture to some $6 to $8 billion a year from $4.1 billion in 2008.Supporting the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), set up by the World Bank Group in April 2010 at G-20’s request, to assist country-led agriculture and food security plans and help promote investments in smallholder farmers. To date, six countries and the Gates Foundation have pledged about $971.5 million over the next three years, with $571 million received.The World Bank Group is coordinating with UN agencies through the High-Level task Force on the Global Food Security Crisis and with NGOs.The World Bank Group supports the Consultative Group for International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), which it helped to establish in 1971. In 2008, the CGIAR with the support of the World Bank and other donors launched a reform process, which culminated in the adoption of a comprehensive strategy that determines the new global research programs and a new funding model that prepares CGIAR to absorb and attract vastly more program funding, with a target annual budget of $1 billion by 2013, to which the World Bank contributes some $50 million per year. With agriculture production needing to rise some 70 percent by 2050, and with a five- to ten-year window to develop new varieties and get them to farmers, increased funding from the international community for global research is critical. Show Less -

On Friday, after more than a decade of health service reforms, infrastructure improvement and human resource capacity building, the government realized part of its goal with the opening of the state-o... Show More +f-the-art, 425-bed, Queen ‘Mamohato Memorial Hospital in Maseru.Lesotho’s King His Majesty Letsie III inaugurated the new hospital, which is expected to bring improved health services to about one quarter of the country’s population.The public hospital features eight operating rooms, a maternity wing including 40-bed nursery, a 10-bed adult Intensive Care Unit, an opthomology unit, two Lamina flow theaters for joint replacement surgery and, most importantly, a well-trained, privately-managed cadre of health care professionals.“There will be a large focus on training at this new facility because of the more modern technology, but also because of the role that this hospital will play in the larger health care infrastructure within Lesotho,” said Karen Prins, Operations Director for the new hospital.According to Prins, the new hospital and the reforms that have led to its construction, staffing and operations could change the face of health care for Lesotho’s citizens. “This is a really ambitious project and sets the scene for many developing countries to follow suit,” she said.Partnering for resultsThe new hospital is part of a wider health care network that has been developed with technical assistance from the World Bank Group, including a $6.25 million grant from the Global Partnership for Output-based Aid and lead transaction advice from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). At its foundation is an 18-year, public private partnership between the government and the Tsepong consortium, led by South African health care investment holding company NETCARE. Under the partnership, the government contracted Tsepong to build, manage and operate the new public hospital without increasing costs to patients.“In the normal [public private partnership] the private sector brings the resources to build and operate, and in a number of years they will hand over to the government,” said Timothy Thahane, Lesotho’s Minister of Finance and of Development Planning.But, in this instance, a group of investors came together, lent to the government who then commissioned the private sector to build, manage and operate.“We will have a referral hospital with the best technology and the best care in the world,” Thahane said. “It will be accessible to every Basotho.”The project is expected to provide services to 20,000 inpatients and 310,000 outpatients each year.In addition to the new hospital facility, Lesotho’s improved health network includes three filter clinics distributed across Maseru that provide primary health care services to local residents. The clinics began operating under Tsepong in May 2010 and see between 300 and 500 patients per day. They open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week, and on Saturday mornings to cater to patients on compliance drugs. About 47 staff per clinic service patients and each clinic features 24-hour, seven-day maternity services.“We do on average about 30-50 deliveries per month at each facility,” said Clinic Manager Dr. Prithi Prithivaraj. “Since opening, we’re at 1000 births and no deaths.”According to Prithivaraj, 75 percent of the clinics’ staff is locally hired, a stipulation of Lesotho’s Employment Equity law, and both doctors and nurses receive regular training in South Africa and in Lesotho.“I have been a nurse for 19 years. I have worked in government hospitals and clinics for 17 years,” said Sister Nzama, a Registered Nurse and Unit Manager at the Mabote Clinic. “The care that I was rendering there, I was doing all I could, with what I had. I wanted to help every patient, but in most of the cases we would have to refer patients, because of lack of equipment.”According to Nzama, providing care at the new clinic is different.“Almost every room has equipment that is needed in that room,” she said. “I don’t shift from one room to another asking for something to use. So really here I do my work quicker. It is really easy to help patients.”Nzama trains junior staff at the clinic, but also receives training.“Prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV/AIDS, we go out to get trainings on that,” she said. “We go out to get trainings on HIV/TB co-infection, so that we know how to manage our patients well. In these clinics, nurses are the ones who see TB/HIV patients, so we need to be well trained so that we can take care of them properly.”Modernizing the health care environmentAt the heart of the government’s plan to improve health services are the country’s human resources, its people. Before the new hospital opening, patients received care at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital, a 325-bed facility built in 1957. Outdated equipment and a crumbling infrastructure regularly forced health care providers to send patients for treatment to Bloemfontein in South Africa.“I went [to Queen Elizabeth] for my baby’s birth,” said Mataoe Marathabile, a patient who visited the Likotsi clinic, one of the new filter clinics, in July. “The toilets were dirty, there was no hot water for a bath… and the babies were five on one bed, newborn babies together on one bed.”Marathabile transferred to Likotsi where she and her daughter Rethabile, now nine months old, receive post-natal care.Relebohile Ntsne lives near the Maseru private hospital but spends four rand to take a taxi to the new Likotsi clinic. “This clinic is free but we get everything we need because the doctors are good, the nurses are good,” she said.Ntsne tells the story of her sister who visited the Queen Elizabeth II hospital and was placed on a mattress on the floor under another patient’s bed because no other beds were free. Her mother told she and her sister about the new clinic and the family has been coming here ever since.“The first time I came here, I was treated very nicely,” she said. “It didn’t take me long to get treatment and it’s much better compared to the other clinics.”The plan is for Likotsi clinic and its counterparts, Qoaling and Mabote, to filter patients to the new Queen ‘Mamohato referral facility.“The whole vision behind this is a quality health care outcome,” said Dr. Prithivaraj. “It’s a comprehensive approach built on efficiency and effectiveness, procedures and protocols.” Show Less -

World Bank Group-supported project set to transform healthcare in Lesotho MASERU, October 21, 2011 – A state-of-the-art hospital was officially inaugurated today in Maseru by His Majesty King Let... Show More +sie III of Lesotho, bringing modern, high-quality healthcare services to about half a million people—or a quarter of Lesotho’s population—living in Maseru district, and also serving the country as a revamped national referral and teaching hospital. The World Bank Group provided technical assistance for designing and implementing the facility as a public-private partnership that is aligned with reforms underway in Lesotho’s health sector to increase access to primary healthcare services and referral care. A grant of $6.25 million was provided through the World Bank-administered Global Partnership for Output-Based Aid to support the process. Several new services, including intensive care, that were not provided at Maseru’s old Queen Elizabeth II hospital, are now available at the new 425-bed hospital through this innovative partnership with the private sector, one of the first of its kind in Africa. “The new hospital and its three filter clinics are now set to revolutionize publicly-funded health service in Lesotho,” said Ritva Reinikka, Director, Human Development, Africa at the World Bank. “This transformation is supported by a unique partnership between the government and the private sector that is truly exciting as Africa looks for ways to reach the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, especially those related to saving mothers and children and fighting HIV/AIDS.” The new public-private partnership is managed by the Tsepong consortium, led by Netcare, a leading South African health care provider. The new facility and the associated filter clinics at Qoaling, Mabote, and Likotsi are part of the Government of Lesotho’s strategic push to improve maternal health, reduce child mortality and combat HIV/AIDS. The filter clinics began operations in April 2010 and notably have maintained a zero-mortality rating, an important achievement in a region with high maternal mortality rates. “Across Sub-Saharan Africa, public health services are increasingly overwhelmed by growing populations and funding shortfalls,” said Jean Philipe Prosper, Director for East and Southern Africa, International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector arm. “Lesotho’s new public-private partnership in health could serve as a replicable model to boost health care provision throughout the continent.” The IFC acted as a lead transaction advisor to the Government of Lesotho for the project. Besides setting up and operating the hospital and the clinics, the Tsepong consortium is responsible for delivering all clinical services at these facilities—including recruitment of doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and provision of all medical equipment and pharmaceuticals—in a cost-efficient manner. The project emphasizes engaging local women-owned businesses and healthcare service providers. An independent monitor, appointed competitively, will provide regular assessment reports on Tsepong’s performance against contractual performance indicators (both for services provided and upkeep of the physical environment, including implementation of measures to control infections). The performance-based contracts have provision for penalties if targets and criteria are not met, thus ensuring accountability in the provision of vital public services. Show Less -

October 20, 2011 – How can researchers and farmers get accurate weather data in the high Andes, to gauge the effects of climate change? What is the best way for people in rapidly growing Kenyan cities... Show More + to report water service interruptions and hold providers accountable? Is there an easier and cheaper way for people in rural Uganda to pay their water bills?Solutions to these and other water problems could emerge over the next several days as tech experts brainstorm at “water hackathons” in 10 cities around the world.The World Bank and the Water and Sanitation Program are bringing together participants for the 48-hour sessions in collaboration with technology partners NASA, Google, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft and Yahoo.Computer programmers and designers will volunteer their time in Lima, Lagos, Kampala and Nairobi, among other cities. They will select from more than 70 problems submitted by subject-matter experts and other stakeholders, and begin to create applications for cell phones and other devices.The goal is to find innovative solutions to water management issues that aren’t easily resolved by water experts alone, and to take advantage of now-ubiquitous mobile phones, mobile internet access, and social media tools to increase citizen participation and transparency in the water sector.“Water is at the heart of some of the world's most pressing development challenges,” says Jose Luis Irigoyen, World Bank Director for Transport, Water, and Information and Communication Technologies. “At the intersection of technology and consumer-related data, we are seeing new opportunities to create and effectively use non-traditional solutions.”ʽLet’s See What These Hackers Can Do’In Africa, it’s been noted that more people have mobile phones than toilets. India – a global information technology leader –has the largest population of poor people that don’t have access to clean water and sanitation. An estimated 500 million people there lack access to safe sanitation and more than 120 million to safe drinking water.Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) Manager Jaehyang So says the Bangalore, India, water hackathon gives the local IT community a chance to get involved in pressing development issues not normally part of their work.“Let’s see what these hackers can do to help a really critical problem,” says So.The hackathons are a kind of “speed dating event between two very different animals – ICT and water,” says Isabelle Huynh, a Bank ICT senior operations officer. They give the information technology and water communities a chance to meet and work together. The challenge is to sustain the effort once the event is over. “The Bank can play a role in facilitating an ecosystem that promotes innovation, incubation and venture capital,” she says.Among the issues that could be addressed in India: difficulties in tracking water consumption in cities; the need to promote use of community toilets in slums and create awareness of water and sanitation issues.In Kenya, hackers will have the opportunity to develop a mobile-to web complaint system to make sure consumer complaints about poor water quality, disconnections, or leaks are received and acted on, and feedback data is systematically gathered and monitored. Such an app would complement efforts of Water Action Groups that have been helping citizens resolve complaints.“We don’t know which problems the hackers are going to choose,” says Julia Bucknall, manager of the World Bank’s water program.“We know which ones are big problems, but we can’t easily judge – and this is exactly the point of this activity –what’s solvable by this community. If we could, we wouldn’t need a hackathon.”A Chance to Transform LivesFor many participants, the hackathon will be the first time they will work on water problems in their own countries, says Daniel Shemie, a junior professional associate at the Bank and a hackathon organizer. Such local “ownership” of problems and solutions is important to the hackathons’ success, to increase the chance applications are followed up on and developed, he says. “I think it’s almost always the cause that people care about most,” says Zach Wilson, 31, a Washington, DC, entrepreneur in mapping and data visualization.“Obviously, the prospect of having some clear recognition of one’s work, some sort of prize is meaningful too. But, it’s as much about the community coming together and working with people with common interests and solving hard problems, and then the prize is kind of a bonus. It’s like starting a successful business. Often the entrepreneur wants to solve a problem, and that’s foremost in the entrepreneur’s mind, and if successful, it might be quite profitable.”Bucknall says she hopes the hackathons will give participants “an opportunity to learn things, to have some fun, and potentially to transform lives.” “That doesn’t just mean the lives of people who can benefit from this product, but also the lives of the hackers themselves. If you realize development challenges are solvable and not just some big problem out there that can’t be helped-- but that actually little incremental steps can make a difference -- people might switch from working on video games to working on water.”The first ever global WaterHackathon follows the model set by Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK), a partnership among Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, NASA, HP and the World Bank. The first RHoK event in November 2009 gave rise to applications such as I’m Ok! and Tweak the Tweet, which were used in emergency response operations following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.The general public is invited to follow the water hackathons live on Twitter at #waterhack. Show Less -

WASHINGTON, October 6, 2011 - In a global economy that depends on sophisticated innovation and knowledge to drive growth and wealth, a new World Bank report on higher education suggests... Show More + that low- and middle-income countries should resist the temptation to establish world-class universities to cash in on research earnings and court global prestige before educating their own citizens to high tertiary standards. According to the new report, The Road to Academic Excellence: The Making of World-Class Research Universities, which charts the experience of 11 leading public and private research universities in nine countries from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, elite research universities are outpacing the smartest companies in the world with their original research. In one recent global study on new patents, for example, leading universities and research institutions are driving more scientific strides in biotechnology than private companies and firms. “Looking at the elite research and grant money cascading out of world-class universities, as well as their new thinking in the humanities and social sciences, you can certainly understand why countries might think that a top-flight research institution is all that stands in their way of reducing poverty, leaping forward in their national development, and establishing new footholds in the global knowledge economy,” says Dr. Jamil Salmi, the Bank’s Higher Education Coordinator, and a co-author of the new report. “But this decision cannot be simply tactical. It must be a long-term strategic decision that aspiring countries take, weighing all the facts, while banishing any notion of fast results.” The new report concludes that top-performers in the research university world share three common characteristics, without which 21st Century universities cannot survive, let alone, excel: a high concentration of talented academics and students, significant budgets, and strategic vision and leadership. In most cases, world-class universities have students and faculty who are not exclusively from the country where the university operates. This enables them to attract the most talented people, no matter where they come from, and open themselves to new ideas and approaches. Unquestionably, the world’s best universities enroll and employ large numbers of foreign students and faculty in their search for the most talented. In this respect, the fact that world-class universities succeed in mobilizing a broadly diverse national and international academic staff is likely to maximize these research institutions’ knowledge-networking capacity. It Costs Millions Another conclusion from the new Bank study is that building and operating world-class universities can cost millions of dollars. For example, the authors show that in late 2007, Saudi Arabia announced plans for a new $10 billion graduate research university; Pakistan plans to spend $750 million for each of its new universities of engineering, science, and technology during the next few years; and the school of medicine established by Cornell University in Qatar in 2002 cost $750 million. The availability of abundant money and international prestige creates a virtuous circle that allows elite universities to attract more top professors and researchers, as is often the case for leading U.S. colleges. Recent years of global economic crisis, though, have significantly affected research universities, potentially boosting East Asia’s universities. East Asian countries have weathered the economic storm better than their Western counterparts, as they seek to join the top ranks of the global research elite. For example, India has increased its higher education investment by 31 percent since 2010, and China has continued to fund its excellence programs in support of the nation’s leading universities. Vision and Leadership Matter Although unlimited money and attracting the world’s best and brightest students and teachers helps strengthen a country’s bid to create a world-class university, strategic vision and leadership are also vital, without which national aspiration to a world-class university ranking falls short. According to the new report, world class universities thrive in environments that foster competitiveness, unrestrained scientific inquiry and academic freedom, critical thinking, innovation, and creativity. Moreover, institutions that have complete autonomy are also more flexible because they are not bound by cumbersome bureaucracies and externally imposed standards, even in light of the legitimate rules and statutes that bind them. As a result, they can manage their resources with agility and quickly respond to the demands of a rapidly changing global market. “To make the grade, you also need inspiring and persistent leaders, a strong strategic vision of where the institution is going, a philosophy of success and excellence, and a culture of constant reflection, organizational learning, and change. On top of that, you can’t be impatient, either,” says Professor Philip G. Altbach, Director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College, and a co-author of the new Bank report. The report says that not every country needs comprehensive world-class universities, at least not while more fundamental tertiary education needs are not being met. Many countries, it adds, would be better off initially focusing on developing the best national universities possible. For example, higher-level research institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa that are equipped to provide quality education and conduct relevant applied research can play a key role in training skilled workers to be fluent in the latest technologies and apply them in industries to make a broader range of products that win customers worldwide. “Good-quality tertiary education is also key to stimulating innovation, from producing new varieties of crops and sources of energy that can speed progress toward reducing poverty, achieving food security, fighting disease, improving health, and creating new jobs,” says Ghana’s Education Minister, the Honorable Betty Mould-Iddrisu. In the foreword to the new report, India’s Minister of Human Resource Development, Dr. Kapil Sibal, writes that the ultimate test of modern research universities is whether they can be flexible enough to encourage learning across disciplines and to harmonize education with the needs of society. Innovation, he writes, is seen as the mantra for development, “a realization so pervasive that nations are scrambling to create institutions and organizations that would facilitate the process of knowledge creation.” “The world today is ripe for another tectonic shift in our understanding of the university as an institution. India can emerge as a knowledge power only if an appropriate architecture for higher education is put in place. Indian youth have demonstrated their inventiveness and energy in the past. Higher education that channels this capacity for innovation will unleash the latent potential of India’s demographic dividend.” The World Bank and Education By investing in people, the World Bank believes that education is a powerful driver of human development and economic growth, and is also one of the strongest instruments for reducing poverty. The Bank manages a portfolio of $11.2 billion with operations in 82 countries, and invested more than $1.8 billion in education in 2011. During the last ten years, education financing by the International Development Association, the Bank’s zero-interest fund for the poorest countries, has helped recruit or train 3 million additional teachers and build more than 2 million new classrooms, benefiting more than 100 million children every year. Show Less -

Washington, September 26, 2011—A new report from the World Bank and IFC released today finds that women still face legal and regulatory hurdles to fully participating in the economy. Women, Busi... Show More +ness and the Law 2012: Removing Barriers to Economic Inclusion finds that while 36 economies reduced legal differences between men and women, 103 out of 141 economies studied still impose legal differences on the basis of gender in at least one of the report’s key indicators. The report also identifies 41 law and regulatory reforms enacted between June 2009 and March 2011 that could enhance women’s economic opportunities. Globally, women represent 49.6 percent of the population but only 40.8 percent of the workforce in the formal sector. Legal differences between men and women may explain this gap. The report shows that economies with greater legal differentiation between men and women have, on average, lower female participation in the formal labor force. “Competitiveness and productivity have much to do with the efficient allocation of resources, including human resources,” said Augusto Lopez-Claros, Director, Global Indicators and Analysis, World Bank Group. “The economy suffers when half of the world’s population is prevented from fully participating. It is certainly no surprise that the world’s most competitive economies are those where the opportunity gap between women and men is the narrowest.” The report measures such things as a woman’s ability to sign a contract, travel abroad, manage property, and interact with public authorities and the private sector. In all economies, married women face more legal differentiations than unmarried women. In 23 economies, married women cannot legally choose where to live, and in 29 they cannot be legally recognized as head of household. Every region includes economies with unequal rules for men and women, although the extent of the inequality varies widely. On average, high-income economies have fewer differences than middle- and low-income economies. The Middle East and North Africa have the most legal differences between men and women, followed by South Asia and Africa. In Africa, a notable exception is Kenya, which leads globally with the most gender-parity reforms during the past two years. Regionally, the most improvements in gender parity occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Central Asia. About the Women, Business and the Law Project:The project measures how regulations and institutions differentiate between women and men in ways that may affect women’s incentives or capacity to work or to set up and run a business. Women, Business and the Law objectively measures such legal differentiations on the basis of gender in 141 economies around the world, covering six areas: accessing institutions, using property, getting a job, providing incentives to work, building credit, and going to court. While the project provides a clear picture of gender gaps based on legal differences in each economy, it is a simple snapshot measuring only legal differentiation. It does not capture the full extent of the gender gap, nor does it indicate the relative importance of each aspect covered. For a collection of national legal provisions impacting women's economic status in 183 economies, please visit the Gender Law Library.About the World Bank GroupThe World Bank Group is one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries. It comprises five closely associated institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA), which together form the World Bank; the International Finance Corporation (IFC); the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA); and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Each institution plays a distinct role in the mission to fight poverty and improve living standards for people in the developing world. Show Less -

MR. MILLS: Thank you all for coming to the closing press conference for the World Bank Group/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings. Each of the participants today will give an opening state... Show More +ment, and then we'll go to questions. We will begin first with DC Chairman Al Khalifa, World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick, and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde. MR. AL KHALIFA: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to this press conference on today's Development Committee Meeting. I am pleased to be joined by Bob Zoellick and Christine Lagarde. Today's meeting gave us a chance to exchange views in three important areas. We discussed the prospects for growth and how the developing countries are doing in the rapidly changing circumstance of the world economy. We discussed the policy and operational implications of the new World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development. And we updated ourselves on the progress being made to modernize the institutions of the World Bank Group. More details on these issues are in the Communiqué and background papers, which are all publicly available, but I will briefly touch upon them now. Let me begin by focusing on the policy and operational implications of this year's World Development Report on Gender Equality and Development. This is an important report and an important subject. It was the centerpiece of our discussions today. As you arrived, you can hardly have missed the huge banners hanging from the World Bank building which highlight very effectively some of the key insights of this year's World Development Report. The main message is a simple and powerful one: Gender equality in economic and social life is, and I quote, "smart economics and an essential ingredient in poverty reduction." As a Committee, we welcomed the Report’s analysis, with its important lessons globally, including that gender equality requires specific action from governments, the private sector, and development partners. We endorsed the directions for the World Bank Group set out in the accompanying Implications Note, and we look forward to reviewing its implementation in a year. We urged the World Bank Group to further integrate gender equality into its operations and reporting, working within its mandate and respecting national values and norms. I commend the Report and its lessons to you as important reading. Also central to our discussions were developing countries' prospects in the face of risks to the global economy. The IMF has summarized the key issues with great clarity in the latest World Economic Outlook report. We noted with concern the turbulence in global financial markets and widespread fiscal strains, which put at risk the robustness and sustainability of global economic recovery. Volatile commodity prices and pressures on food security are critical challenges, particularly for developing countries, and we are alert to the possible global impacts of all these issues, particularly on the poor. We committed to do everything within our means to support strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in all our member countries, and we affirmed the need to work cooperatively to meet our development commitments to achieve the Millennium Goals by 2015 and to support the poor in developing and emerging countries. We attached particular importance to the question of jobs. Current high levels of unemployment make the challenge of job creation a priority for countries at all levels of development. Jobs, of course, are vital in translating growth into lasting poverty reduction and broad-based economic opportunities. We at the Development Committee reiterated our commitment to job creation, especially by supporting the expansion of a vibrant private sector. In this connection, I should point out that next year's World Development Report will be precisely on the issue of jobs. We also discussed two parts of the world that face special challenges. We are all saddened by the scale of human tragedy caused by the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa, and we commended the response of the World Bank and the IMF both to the immediate crisis and to the area's long-term challenges. We also welcomed the Bank Group's enhanced focus on innovative approaches to help countries in the Middle East and North Africa to address the social and economic consequences of their current transition. Finally, we discussed the ongoing process of modernization at the World Bank Group. Here, I want especially to emphasize the contribution that the Bank Group is making to greater transparency and better diffusion of information about development issues through its Open Data, Open Knowledge, Open Solutions Initiative, which opens up a huge repository of data on development to anyone with access to the internet. I also want to commend the new World Bank Scorecard that will improve accountability and better reflect the World Bank Group's accomplishments. Thank you very much. MR. MILLS: Thank you. President Zoellick? MR. ZOELLICK: Thank you, Rich, and thank you, Chairman. The Development Committee meeting is important for the World Bank because it enables us to hear directly from our shareholders beyond the normal country dialogues and in concert with other countries. This invaluable interaction helps us to make improvements to our work in order to better serve our clients-developing countries. Since the middle of 2008, when the global crisis really began to take hold, the World Bank Group has committed $196 billion to developing countries from IBRD, from IDA, from IFC, our private sector arm, and from MIGA, our guarantee agency. Total disbursements were $126 billion, faster during the most heated period of the downtown. In the discussions we had today on the state of the global economy, it was clear that shareholders want us to persist in providing this vital source of support for developing countries. And this may become more important if the early signs of a possible slowdown in their economies turns to reality. In low-income countries, this risk adds urgency to our work to build safety net programs to shield the most vulnerable from a downturn. We have helped expand the conditional cash transfer model that was pioneered by Mexico and Brazil to over 40 countries. And we have helped 40 more countries implement other types of safety nets. But we have more to go, and the nets can be stronger. Shareholders want us to assist in real-time to crises as they emerge in the global economy. A good example is the decision we announced today to boost World Bank assistance to the countries in the Horn of Africa to $1.88 billion over five years from the previously announced sum of $500 million. This will include $250 million from the Crisis Response Window in the International Development Association, our fund for the poorest. This Crisis Window is a good example. It is a new tool. We called for it, designed it, and persuaded the IDA donors to endorse it just last year. The World Bank is supporting the common call for action in the Horn of Africa that is being led by the UN humanitarian agencies, with stalwart support by the UK, Australia, the European Commission, the United States, and others. In addition to addressing today's disaster, our efforts will be to help build recovery for tomorrow and resilience for the future. A humanitarian crisis should not and need not be a perpetual crisis. While keeping up what we are doing, our shareholders also want us to find new ways to do better--and we’ll do that. We’ll press on with the Modernization Agenda to make the Bank Group more flexible, focused on clients, open, accountable, and always driven with attention to results. These are tough times, and taxpayers deserve the best value for money that their tax dollars and our revenues can buy. Aside from crisis response, I was also pleased to hear the endorsement of shareholders for two long-term priorities of the World Bank Group. Shareholders agreed with the findings of our World Development Report on Gender that equality between men and women is not only a right in and of itself, but it is also smart economics and essential to overcoming poverty. This is common sense that is not always commonly believed. Yet how can a society reach its full potential if half its population is too often treated as second-class citizens? So we will now work to ensure that the implications for gender are embedded in everything we do, from land titling to designing social security systems to infrastructure projects. There was also shareholder endorsement for the Bank's next World Development Report on jobs. With unemployment soaring in developed countries and a youth bulge and lack of jobs--and the lack of dignity associated with work--among the many causes of the Arab Spring, this project could not come at a better time. We also had a chance during these meetings to discuss the global situation and particularly the looming danger that failure to take decisive action in Europe and the United States may shake the entire global economy, throwing developing countries off track--and they are today's engine of global growth. The numbers emerging out of developing countries over the past month, even the past week, are shaking and shaky. As Ben Franklin said during another era of crisis, we must hang together--as men and women, as developed and developing economies, as G20 and G187, our entire World Bank membership--or we’ll hang separately. And that, I think, is the fundamental message from this meeting. Thank you. MR. MILLS: Thank you. MS. LAGARDE: Thank you very much. A few words about the current situation, the recommended macroeconomic policies, and the role that the international community and the International Monetary Fund can play in that regard. Concerning the economic situation, the low-income countries are doing relatively well in the current circumstances. Emerging and developing economy growth has been in the range of 5 to 6 percent and is predicted, forecasted to be, in the same range of numbers in 2012. So, compared with other forecasts for advanced economies, for instance, it is a very good level of growth that is forecasted. But we shouldn't be under any illusion, and as President Zoellick indicated, we are in this together. The low-income countries, particularly the developing countries in general are clearly at risk if there is economic dislocation in the advanced economies. So, resolving the crisis in the advanced economies is a major priority because it affects everybody, not just the advanced economies, but it's also the rest of the economies. In terms of policy recommendations, what certainly the Fund has recommended in its various publications and review is to make sure that the low-income countries rebuild their strength, and to the extent that they rebuild their buffers, they had developed policy buffers that had protected them during the crisis that have been eroded as a result of the crisis. That needs to be rebuilt. Second, they need to protect spending on infrastructure for growth and continue to drive to diversify their sources of value creation. Finally, they need to continuously protect their social safety nets, because clearly in times of crisis they will be needed to protect the poor, particularly from the high food prices and the high price of commodities. Now, as far as the international communities and the IMF is concerned, certainly what we hope and what we call for is that donors must be kept to their promises, and aids budgets in particular should be maintained. Trade should be encouraged, market access should be encouraged so that those that actually produce and export in the low-income countries can have better access to countries that import, and private sector investment should be encouraged. So, those are the clearly the expectations that we have from the donor community and as far as we're concerned we will continue to support the low-income countries strongly, be it by policy advice, by specific surveillance, by specific lending instrument. In that vein I would simply call your attention to the fact that we will be shortly discussing what we call a Vulnerability Exercise Paper which will focus specifically on the low-income countries that will be discussed in the Board in the coming weeks. And second, we will mechanically extend the very concessional terms at which our PRGT facility is extended to the low-income countries; that's the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility that is extended at virtually zero interest that will be continued in 2012. Thank you very much. MR. MILLS: Thank you. So, we'll now go to questions. If I could please ask that you identify yourself and the organization you're with. Yes, right over there, sir. QUESTION: Yeah, Larry Elliot of The Guardian in London. Can I ask a double-barreled question. How big a risk is it to the developing world that the European crisis and the need to solve it--and secondly, the dog that hasn't barked during this crisis so far has been protectionism. How big a risk is there do you think of a second leg of this crisis leading to protectionist pressures, which would seriously affect developing countries. MR. ZOELLICK: Who is it for, Larry? QUESTION: The Guardian. MR. ZOELLICK: No, now-- QUESTION: Either you or Madam Lagarde. MR. ZOELLICK: Do you want me to go first? Well it's up--well, on the developing countries, up until the summer, we had a multispeed recovery, and this is reflected in some of the forecasts in the World Economic Outlook the IMF has put together, and most of the emerging markets' primary challenge was dealing with the risk of overheating and inflation. That hasn't entirely gone away, particularly because of the challenge of food prices. But what we started to see in August, and this is very early, given the way the data comes in, but is there--the bond yield started to go up on average about 70 basis points. The equity markets took a big hit. So, as of mid September you had about, globally, 10 percent of global GDP drop in equity markets. As you've seen this week, you've started to see some withdrawal of funds from countries that actually had a lot of money flowing in, so their exchange rates have come down. And the environment was already one where their trade to developed countries had not recovered all the way back from the start of the crisis. So, the issue that we're watching quite closely now is the question of whether the drop of confidence that you've seen in developed countries would extend to developing countries. And so, whether the business investment, their consumers, and that would, of course, affect their domestic demand. And the challenge of course is that, in that sort of context, the data we have would be starting to show up in some things like purchasing manager indices. But it's very early but it's showing deterioration. So, at least the key message that I believe, or at least speaking for myself coming out of these meetings is we are even moving closer to the edge, because if developing countries start to lose domestic demand then the source of what's been half of global growth evaporates. And then, obviously, for example, the World Economic Outlook Forecast sort of had a drop in developed countries. It had developing countries come down a little but still be steady. Well, that would obviously be in question. And so, then, for the second aspect about protectionism, so far, Larry, the protectionist actions that we and the WTO and others monitor actually came down a little bit as the crisis went on, but--and here's the big "but"--is that since many of them were facing inflation, it wouldn’t be too surprising that they would try to keep trade barriers down, and particularly in the food and agriculture area. But even over the past week or so, you've seen some countries start to take some actions that deal with their manufacturing sector, and then, that could set off a whole series of other actions. So, the message that Pascal Lamy and I gave to the Development Committee was not only the need to monitor these, to try to draw attention to them, but at least speaking for myself, I think the best defense is a good offense. So, I would be trying to look for ways that you could advance openness in the international economy. MR. MILLS: Okay. We'll go around. Yes. QUESTION: Thank you very much. Rodrigo Vilgo from Indian Globe and Asia Today [ph]. My question is that poverty and corruption, they go together, and that is the most essential for the poor and underdeveloped or Third World countries, and there are many banks but especially in Swiss banks, still they are holding black market money from the corrupt politicians. You have seen recently in many underdeveloped countries, including in India, the campaign going on against corruption, those who are holding black market money in those banks. What I'm asking you is what are you doing about those to--are you forcing those banks--especially there is no accountability for the black market money, so, then, because of that, only few pockets and the countries' treasury is empty and poverty is going down and down, and at the same time poor people. So, what I'm asking you is if you are doing anything about that. Thank you. MR. ZOELLICK: Want me to start? Well, Christine actually played a leadership role on this in her prior post, because the Bank had created something called the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, and when we presented this to Christine as Chair of the G20 Finance Ministers, she became a very strong and prompt advocate of it, and there are different dimensions of it. But one is there's an international treaty, there's an accord that we've tried to press as many countries as possible to ratify, and we're including some developed countries that haven't yet got it through their parliament to make it easier to get access at those funds. But then, secondly, we are working with a series of emerging markets to help them file the cases, develop the capacity to track the money. In some cases, they feel it would help them in the recovery they could make the case about the monitoring or the disposition of those assets. So, there's a series of countries that we're working with. We had some modest early success, I believe, with Haiti, I can get you some others, but there's a host of countries that we're working with on this, and indeed, in the course of the past couple days, I had some discussions about trying to support India on this issue, as well as some of the North African countries in this process. MS. LAGARDE: I'll just follow-up on that for a second. I think the two dimensions, in addition to what President Zoellick has mentioned, and the Stolen Asset Recovery is a very good initiative and one that is to be encouraged. Two other things: One is the Transparency Initiative, which has been certainly undertaken by various jurisdictions around the world and which is critical in that it requires disclosure of payments that are made, and whatever goes in support of transparency in that particular section is very, very important. And the second one is the Non-Cooperative Jurisdiction initiative that has been undertaken by the G20 which has helped some jurisdictions make progress in terms of disclosure. Whatever happens in the field of disclosure, bank secrecy, and commitment to disclose information is good news. There are progresses being made. It's not entirely satisfactory and I certainly hope that there can be further progress in that respect. MR. MILLS: Yes, Bob. QUESTION: [Off microphone.] MR. MILLS: Is there another microphone we could use, please? QUESTION: Better? Okay. For Mr. Zoellick and Ms. Lagarde, you both have talked very passionately about the possibility of this crisis getting worse and worse. At its heart it's a European crisis, is there anything that either of you could point to, in the many meetings that you have had in the past few days that would lead you to say that the European crisis is closer to resolution? And if so, what would you point to? MS. LAGARDE: I wish you had attended the conference that took place earlier today, because what we tried to do was to express precisely what you are looking for, which was a clear sense around the membership.And I'm not just talking about the members of the eurozone, but the membership, the 187 members that are represented at the IMF when we had the meeting of the IMFC this morning, but a clear sense of, number one, a common diagnosis of the issue; number two, a sense of common purpose and decisiveness about addressing the issues; number three, a clear focus on the steps to be undertaken in the coming weeks to address the issues. Now, there is clearly work underway in that regard, but I certainly myself was very strongly encouraged by the purpose, the determination, the sense of absolute urgency that was shared amongst the membership. MR. MILLS: Yes, ma'am. Right here. QUESTION: I'm from China Business News. My question is both to MD Lagarde and also President Zoellick. What kind of suggestions do you have for China for China to work with the international community to restore the confidence and also to inject the new energy to the new economic recovery at this critical point? I'm not saying that China is going to rescue the rest of the world. China is facing its problems at home. China's economic growth has slowed down a little bit and it is difficult and it is impossible for China to have another four trillion stimulus at this moment. So, what kind of suggestion for China to do at this moment? Thank you very much. MS. LAGARDE: Well, in this collective drive that I was referring to when I responded to the previous journalist who asked the question, there's a role for everyone, and that was also clearly the understanding in the room, which means that for large emerging markets, there is a role to be played. Countries with an external surplus account can certainly play their part in rebalancing the economy, because that's really in the background and also in the root of what is happening at the moment. So, the message is pretty clear: To rebalance countries with external surplus accounts need to actually develop their domestic market which will be good internally, good externally as well. And by the same token a little bit of currency appreciation might help, including to drive down inflation. MR. ZOELLICK: I'll just supplement by saying that I think for most emerging markets the key test now is to focus on their own growth fundamentals so we can keep them as an engine of growth. In the case of China, it has faced the danger of overheating, there have been actions that they've started to take, including some on the regulatory side but also some appreciation of the currency, since the overheating has been somewhat related to food prices, and that's a very sensitive issue for China's poor. Obviously, again, appreciated currency allows China to buy more food at lower prices. But I think the other point is that the main reason why I was in China was to work on--to get close to the finalization of a report we've been working on for the past year that has been driven by China's concern, even though it has grown successfully for 30 years, of moving to a growth model that avoids the middle-income trap, and that growth model will be a model that relies less on export-led growth than investment-led growth. And I think these are the goals that China has outlined in the 12th 5-Year Plan, but they were in the 11th 5-Year Plan, too. They were thrown off in part by the crisis. So, the purpose of this work is to go into considerable detail to go to how to achieve what China has said it wants to accomplish. And I think this could be significant over time, because with the next leadership generation coming in in 2012, I think there's a recognition about the need for these structural changes. And my own experience has been that China will move more on some of the price issues if the structural models will change. And so, this is not obviously as immediate as some of the fiscal and monetary issues that Christine has mentioned, but I think it's going to be important for the long-run stability and rebalancing of the international system. And to give credit where credit is due, there's a lot of economies that should be considering structural growth issues in the midst of pretty weak performance. China has had 10 percent annual growth for 30 years and yet it's willing to consider structural change, and I think that's a good sign, but of course the devil will be in the details of implementation. MR. MILLS: Okay. We have time for one more quick question. Yes, ma'am. QUESTION: My name is Adam Ouologuem, the Washington Bureau Chief of the African Sun Times. My question is for President Zoellick and Madam Lagarde. Do you think is there any hope that we will meet the Millennium Challenge Goals in 2015 if the donor countries are struggling? Economically, there is crisis everywhere. In the U.S., where I'm based, there are more poor than in my country of origin, which is Mali. So, how can you come out with the Millennium Challenge account--how can you meet that goal? Do I need to repeat myself? MS. LAGARDE: No, I'm just thoughtful about your question, and it's the beauty and the problem of categorizing and putting countries in the advanced economies categories, in the low-income categories, in the emerging markets categories. There are clearly within those categories less privileged poor people in all of them and where action needs to be taken. I think one of the discussions that we've had, and I'm really pretty much outside the subject of the development agenda that was developed with great talent by President Zoellick, but one of the topics we had for discussion at the IMFC was the definition of the kind of growth that we're looking for. Is it growth in and of itself? Is it growth that is creating jobs? Is it growth that is creating jobs for those that have been excluded from the job market such as the young generation, such as women? It is growth that creates jobs and that is also inclusive because it has a social dimension and should consist of aggregating rather than dividing, as we have observed lately. So, I'm not sure that I have a ready-made answer for you, but it is clearly part of the agenda that we have and that we pursue and to have that quality growth that helps guaranteeing the social chemistry of our societies. MR. ZOELLICK: Let me just add to this. Within the Millennium Development Goals, there will be some that are met globally. So, for example, cutting poverty in half will happen, and that is a very significant achievement during that period. Now, one reason it's going to happen is because China has reduced poverty by about 300 million or 400 million people. So, if you look through all the goals, there's some good progress in education and some of the other ones. Now, as you go country by country, in Sub-Saharan Africa as well there's been some significant progress. So, talk about girls in school, one of the issues in the gender is we now have in many countries, maybe most countries, about half the girls in primary education. We now have to work on the quality of the education, in the secondary education. In some of the health and water and sanitation, we're not as far as we need to be. I remember because I visited Mali in December, there were a couple--we track these individually, obviously, but we can get back to you. In Mali, my recollection was there were a couple that Mali had a good chance to be able to make. Now, the purpose of goals, however, is not just to clear easy hurdles. The purpose is also to understand kind of what else we have to do to keep working for them. Now, here's the group that's most vulnerable: In post-conflict countries, not one of them has been able to reach one Millennium Development Goals. So, that's the focus we have particularly on the Liberias, the Haitis, the Côte d'Ivoires, and others, but let me give you an example of what comes out of some of these--the details of this. Take some of the health and education and nutrition ones, is that people have tended to look at these as separate goals. True enough, they're on the chart separately, but the intervention is probably much better if you can get them in an interconnected fashion. So, I talked about the safety nets and I mentioned this conditional cash transfer program started in Mexico and Brazil, now in 50 countries. That model was, you get money to the poorest, you deal with the poverty goal, if people send their children to school and they get basic health checkups; so, one platform, three goals. And you can do the same thing in school feeding and connect it with basic vaccinations and nutrition. So, please don't give up hope, because there have been some countries that are making it, and some of the goals you're going to make it in a macro fashion, and even within Sub-Saharan African countries there is a lot of variation, and that means with some, we've made progress, and others we're going to learn how to achieve those goals. So, the other point I think that also Christine referenced is this occurs a lot more easily if this occurs in a country in which you get growth. So, what really drove a lot of the anti-poverty changes in China was an overall growth agenda. Now, you talked about aid numbers. We're going to try to do what we can. We had a report at the Development Committee, I think about $130 billion of aid this year, you know, and here's--we ought to draw attention where countries are doing the right thing. Britain has taken a very tough fiscal program, it is still increasing its development aid. It is still going towards the 0.7 goal, Australia is trying to do the same thing. So, there are countries out there that are trying to be supportive. And then, if we help countries mobilize their own domestic resources, go back to this corruption question, the more we can try to do where local revenues are not misspent or given to some rich minister or something like that, then you drive that home, and it comes back right to this question on transparency. I answered it narrowly with the Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative, the best thing we can do is help the transparency to fight the corruption in countries. So, don't give up hope, and particularly in Mali, Mali, as you know, is a democracy, has made--for a poor country has made some notable progress. It can make it. MR. MILLS: Thank you very much. Show Less -

Thank you Rich and thank you Mr. Chairman. The Development Committee meeting is important for the World Bank because it enables us to hear directly from our shareholders beyond the normal country... Show More + dialogues and in concert with other countries. This invaluable interaction helps us to make improvements to our work in order to better serve our clients - developing countries. Since the middle of 2008, when the global crisis really began to take hold, the World Bank Group has committed $196 billion to developing countries from IBRD, from IDA, from IFC, our private sector arm, and from MIGA our guarantee agency. Total disbursements were $126 billion, faster during the most heated period of the downturn. In the discussions we had today on the state of the global economy, it was clear that shareholders want us to persist in providing this vital source of support for developing countries. And this may become more important if the early signs of a possible slowdown in their economies turn to reality. In low-income countries, this risk adds urgency to our work to build safety net programs to shield the most vulnerable from a downturn. We’ve helped expand the Conditional Cash Transfer model, that was pioneered by Mexico and Brazil, to over 40 countries. And we have helped 40 more countries implement other types of safety nets. But we have more to go, and the nets can be stronger. Shareholders want us to continue to assist in real-time to crises as they emerge in the global economy. A good example is the decision we announced today to boost World Bank assistance to the countries in the Horn of Africa to $1.88 billion over five years from the previously announced sum of $500 million. This will include $250 million from the Crisis Response Window in the International Development Association, our fund for the poorest. This crisis window is a good example; we called for it, designed it, and persuaded the IDA donors to endorse it just last year. The World Bank is supporting the common call for action in the Horn of Africa that is being led by the U.N. humanitarian agencies, with stalwart support by the U.K., Australia, the European Commission, the United States, and others. In addition, to addressing today’s disaster, our efforts will help build recovery for tomorrow and resilience for the future. A humanitarian crisis should not and need not be a perpetual crisis. While keeping up what we are doing, our shareholders also want us to find new ways to do better – and we’ll do that. We’ll press on with the modernization agenda to make the Bank Group more flexible, focused on clients, open, accountable, and always driven with attention to results. These are tough times and taxpayers deserve the best value for money that their tax-payer, their tax dollars and our revenues can buy. Aside from crisis response, I was also pleased to hear the endorsement of shareholders for two long-term priorities of the World Bank Group. Shareholders agreed with the findings of our World Development Report on Gender that equality between men and women is not only a right, in and of itself, but it’s also smart economics and is essential to overcoming poverty. This is common sense that is not always commonly believed. Yet how can a society reach its full potential if half its population is too often treated as second class citizens? So we’ll now work to ensure that the implications for gender are embedded in everything we do, from land-titling, to designing social security systems, to infrastructure projects. There was also shareholder endorsement for the Bank’s new next World Development Report on jobs. With unemployment soaring in developed economies and a youth bulge and lack of jobs -- and the lack of dignity associated with work -- among many causes of the Arab Spring, this project could not come at a better time. We also have had a chance during these meeting to discuss the global situation, and particularly the looming danger that failure to take decisive action in Europe and the United States, may shake the entire global economy, throwing developing countries off track, and they are today's engine of global growth. The numbers emerging out of developing countries over the past month, even the past week, are shaking and shaky. As Ben Franklin said during another era of crisis, we must hang together -- as men and women, as developed and developing economies, as G-20 and G-187 our entire World Bank membership -- or we’ll hang separately. That I think is the fundamental message from these meetings. Thank you. END Show Less -

WASHINGTON, September 22, 2011 – World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick and Director of Governance and Civic Engagement at CARE, Egypt, Amr Lashin, today signed a financial agreement granting CARE se... Show More +ed funding to kick start a network across the Middle East and North Africa designed to foster accountability through civic participation.The Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA) for the Arab world is a regional grouping of practitioners in participatory governance and social accountability including members of governments, civil society organizations, the private sector and media.Today’s signing awards first-year funding of a $ 500 000 grant to CARE Egypt from the World Bank’s Development Grant Facility (DGF) as seed capital to help facilitate and establish ANSA across the Arab world. This is the first year of potentially three years of support.As with ANSA groupings in other regions of the world whose initiation the Bank has helped facilitate, the grant funding is designed to help strengthen the capacity of stakeholders working on social accountability and transparency in service delivery.The seed funding for the establishment of ANSA-Arab World is designed to support the network for three years while the body builds its own momentum and sources of funding and ownership. Show Less -

MR. MILLS: Thank you all for coming to our opening press conference for the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings. Today we have President Zoellick from the World Bank. He will be opening with a sta... Show More +tement, and then we’ll move to some questions. If I could please just reiterate if everyone could make sure that their cell phones and pagers are off, and that when we turn to questions if you could please identify yourself and your organization. With that, President Zoellick. MR. ZOELLICK: Thank you, Rich. Good morning. Thanks to all of you for coming to this opening news conference of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. I’d like from the start, to take this opportunity to say how delighted I am to be able to work with Christine Lagarde as the new head of the IMF. Of course, we’ve actually had the chance to cooperate from her since her first appointment as Trade Minister of France. And I’ve seen her skills, insights – and her leadership – will make her an invaluable partner at this sensitive moment in the world economy. Before turning to your questions, I’d like to offer some sense of what I expect to be discussed at these meetings. These meetings offer an opportunity for our senior officers and me to take the pulse of our client countries; to listen to their concerns, and to adjust to ensure that we are offering them the very best support we possibly can. The World Bank has become faster and more targeted in its response to client needs. But we can certainly do better. Two key themes of this meetings are gender and jobs. While the gyrations of the financial markets will grab your headlines, it is these structural issues that can lay the foundation for sustainable growth. We’ve just released a World Development Report on gender that proves that “getting to equal” for women is not just the right thing to do. It’s also smart economics. Women, as one of your colleagues pointed out to me, are the next big emerging market. How can the world reach its full growth potential if it fails to advance the prospects, energies, and contributions of half the world’s population – women and girls? Nearly four million girls and women in developing countries “go missing” each year when compared to female counterparts in developed countries. That’s like losing a Los Angeles, a Johannesburg, a Yokohama. Access to credit and property. Removing barriers to work and jobs. Investments in health, water, education. Empowering the voice of women. Focused attention –even just removing barriers – can make a big difference. At these meetings we’ll be starting the process for our next World Development Report – which focuses on another fundamental for economic growth – jobs. The last time the World Bank did such a report on jobs was 16 years ago and much has certainly changed. Back then the issue was globalization’s effect on jobs. Today we live in a vastly different new multipolar economy. Now the topic that I suspect will dominate discussions this week with our shareholders is the darkening outlook for the World Bank’s clients: developing countries. Up until recently, developing countries have been the bright spot in the global economy. They provided around a half of global growth while Europe, Japan, and the United States have struggled with high debts and high unemployment. While developed countries stumble, the situation for emerging markets may be changing for the worse. Since August, we’ve seen bond spreads for emerging markets increase, their equity markets have declined like in developed markets, and capital flows have declined sharply. Falling exports were already a worry. Now falling markets and declining confidence could prompt slippage in developing countries’ investment and a possible pullback by their consumers, too. A fall in developing countries’ domestic demand would mean we’d lose their economic engines as drivers of global recovery. Now the developing countries are not as well-placed as they were in 2007 -2008 to withstand another shock. Their budgets are not so robust that they can simply spend their way out of trouble; and some are walking a monetary policy tight rope, balancing price pressures and these new dangers. Add in volatile and high food prices – a particular burden on the poor in developing countries – and the threat of rising protectionism, and you can see that developing countries face increasing headwinds. If the situation deteriorates further then developing countries’ growth could turn down, their asset prices could drop, and then their non-performing loans could increase. With these pressures and prospects, we’ll have to anticipate possible protectionist pressures, “Beggar thy neighbor” policies, and a risk of a retreat to populism. The world is in a danger zone. In 2008, many people said they did not see the turbulence coming. Leaders have no such excuse now. And dangerous times call for courageous people. Some developed country officials sound like their woes are just their business. Not so. I still think that a double-dip recession for the world’s major economies is unlikely. But my confidence in that belief is being eroded daily by the steady drip of difficult economic news. A crisis made in the developed world could become a crisis for developing countries. Europe, Japan, and the United States must act to address their big economic problems before they become bigger problems for the rest of the world. Not to do so is irresponsible. But I know well that acting on them means honest and difficult discussions with parliaments and publics. Delay will narrow choices and make them harder and more costly. All of us across developing and developed economies have a stake in how they handle it. To close, I also want to note that the Bank will using these meetings as a complement to the goings on in New York at the UN to assist countries rent by conflict – for example, in the a focus on countries in the Horn of Africa, Southern Sudan, Cote d’Ivoire, Afghanistan and Libya. In addition to meetings with Arab Governors, and the Arab Funds, whom I met last might, and Ministers from Tunisia and Egypt, I’ll have the opportunity to meet with Dr Ahmed Jehani, Libya’s new Minister of Stabilization and Reconstruction. I am pleased to take your questions. MR. MILLS: Thank you very much. Yes, Danny. QUESTION: Danny Jiang with China’s Xinhua News Agency. President, Zoellick, I liked your speech yesterday a lot, surrounded by drummers dressed in “Think Equal” t-shirts. But it seems that the world has not given an equal amount of attention to the vulnerability of developing countries amid the high economic uncertainties, so what economic and financial buffers should developing countries build to get prepared if the world economy further deteriorates into a worse scenario, and how might those buffers turn into long-term drivers? Thank you. MR. ZOELLICK: Well, my remarks this morning and my remarks over the past couple days are designed to try to emphasize the explicit linkages between the developed countries and the developing countries, and in particular, I have tried to specify the particular changes we are already seeing in, for example, bond and equity markets, and I have tried to exercise our responsibility by anticipating some of the areas that we could see. So, for example, in terms of developing countries’ domestic demand, the statistics, which have a lag, don’t necessarily show this yet, but we follow, for example, purchasing manager indices, and while these are always a little difficult to monitor across the developing world, they are starting to show some deterioration. So these are some of the issues that I want to highlight and focus attention on. Now, your question focuses particularly on the developing country response, and what I have tried to mention is that it obviously depends on the Region and the countries, but in general, their space to respond on the fiscal side is limited compared to where it was in 2007-2008. In the area of monetary policy, you have this very sensitive line to walk where a number of countries were worried about overheating; they still face the dangers of food price inflation, but now they have to manage the risk of a possible broader downturn in demand. So part of these sessions will be to try to highlight those issues, but I think whether it is developing countries or developed countries, I guess I would conclude my answer to your question by saying there are two general policy sets. One is don’t do dumb things--so, don’t let the world slip into protectionism. And then, secondly, or in the case of agriculture, when prices start to go up, avoid hoarding, avoid export bans. And then, whether it is a developing or a developed country, my repeated advice has been keep your eyes on the drivers of long-term growth. These vary by country. One of the reasons why the Gender Report is a powerful example is that you can see striking productivity gains by including girls and women more effectively, and that’s a driver of long-term growth. In the case of the United States, what it means is that in addition to trying to deal with the long-term spending and debt issues, the political shape that you are starting to see across the spectrum for broad-based tax reform which would expand the base, cut rates, like one I was involved with in the mid-eighties. That would be a very important step. Opening markets is one of the best drivers of structural reform. Now, in China, for example, one of the key topics is the one that I was discussing in Beijing, which is that even with strong growth over some 30 years, I think it is wise that China start to be looking at the structure of a different growth model and moving away from export-led and investment-led growth. That will create a better context for balancing both the Chinese economy and the global economy. Those are the goals of the 12th Five-Year Plan. Our project is designed to work closely with Chinese colleagues to try to specify how this can be done. This is obviously going to be a challenge primarily for the next generation of Chinese leaders, but we hope we can contribute to that. MR. MILLS: Thank you. Yes? QUESTION: Thank you, Sir. My name is Andrei Sitov and I am with Tass, the Russian News Agency. I wanted to ask you about the BRICS. They will be meeting here in a couple of hours, I guess. And everybody assumes that aid to the EU, to the Eurozone, will be on the agenda. It is a first, as we all know. I know that you believe that the Europeans need to help themselves mostly, but still, my question to you is what is the best role that you can see for the BRICS countries in the current situation, and not necessarily just China but the other BRICS also. Thank you. MR. ZOELLICK: Well, I think the best role for the BRICS countries is the same as the best role for any countries, which is to focus on what they need to do at home to get through the current financial dangers and to move on to long-term growth. So the fact that emerging markets have provided about half of global growth has been a very important contributor to the nature of the recovery. So, over time, as I just mentioned to the Chinese question, it will be important to move toward greater domestic demand, greater balancing of the economy, appreciation of the currency. And for, say, in the case of India, India’s inflation has probably also been related to some supply-side factors, so the ongoing effort to try to reduce structural barriers to growth would be important. The agricultural sector in India years ago was known for the “green revolution.” There are probably huge potential gains there in terms of the productivity side.Russia obviously has relied very heavily on energy, and the direction of the government in terms of trying to have a broader base of reform, structural changes. Some that we are involved in through IFC, putting together a new investment fund to support some small and medium-size banks outside the St. Petersburg-Moscow area, could be very important. And in the case of Brazil, you have an agricultural power, a country that has new potential energy resources, and it is trying to deal with competition in its manufacturing sector given all these gyrations of currency and other issues. So the bottom line for this is that economic cooperation will be vital going forward. There will be temptations to engage in verbal jousts and, worse, actions that would impede the overall economic success. So I hope that coming out of these meetings, the discussion of Ministers will highlight more effectively that they can all hang together, or they can hang separately. MR. MILLS: Yes, right over there; thank you. QUESTION: Thank you. Sandra Sun, from China Business News. I wonder if you can elaborate a little bit on China. The World Bank classified China as a middle-income country this July. Based on what you have observed in China, to avoid the so-called middle-income trap, what are the long-term and short-term issues that China needs to address? Thank you. MR. ZOELLICK: Well, on the short term, I think the predominant concern has been the one about avoiding overheating. Some of this has been driven by food price inflation. I think the actions that the Chinese are taking through the banking system but also on the monetary policy, including appreciation of currency, are headed in the right direction, but as the comments by Premier Wen Jiabao not long ago emphasized, they haven’t yet slayed the dragon of inflation, so that will be an ongoing challenge. In the long term, I can reference the report that you probably have familiarity with, and I am very pleased with this report because, as you said, it goes to this critical issue of avoiding the middle-income trap, the structural changes. These involve better pricing for natural resources, and let me just make a slight add-on here. Justin Lin, our Chief Economist, just had a call with the chief economists of a number of the multilateral institutions yesterday--I just got an email report this morning--and one issue that they all emphasized--it’s kind of a “sleeper” issue--is the huge energy subsidies that are available in developing and developed countries which lead to overuse of the resource and also lead to inefficiency in production. So here is another good example of a structural change if you move toward reducing the subsidies and even just have market pricing for energy, to say nothing of the effects that it might have on carbon. So this will be an important issue for China. The financial model for a lot of the state-owned enterprises has been based on a restricted financial system, low interest rates to consumers or to savers. This allows, in a sense, some mispricing of the capital side. China needs to move up the value added chain for its workforce. Within five years, we estimate there will be more people leaving the labor force than coming in. So this talks about everything from education to an open innovation system. So the good news is the types of changes that we have outlined in this report and which seem to have a broad base of discussion in the Chinese policy community as well as the academic community are the types of things that could be good for China, but they could be good for the international system as well. MR. MILLS: Right over there in the back, please. QUESTION: Thank you. Rueben Barrera with the Mexican News Agency Notemex. I would like to go to the issue of populism that you alluded to in your initial statement, and the question is what are the chances that we can see a resurgence of populism, especially when protectionism seems to be an easier thing to do for governments. And in the case of Latin America, what is the risk that we could see rising populism, especially when the type of populism that has been pushed by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela seems to be losing appeal not only among people but also among political leaders? MR. ZOELLICK: Well populism takes different forms in different countries, so let me start with protectionism. So far, the good news has been that while there was an increase in various trade barriers, formal and informal, in the 2008-2009 period - these would include permitted actions like anti-dumping, countervailing duty suits, safeguards, increasing your tariffs, that--they actually came down a little bit over the past year, in part because developing countries were worried about inflation, and if you are worried about food price inflation, you actually want to lower the price of food coming into your country. But--and this is the big “but”--the thing we now have to be alert to is that given some of the dangers of drop-off in demand, I think it will be tempting for some countries to start to protect their manufacturing sectors, and in that environment, you could start to get a cycle of policies that become disruptive - as they were in the thirties. So we are working with the World Trade Organization - and we have worked with some outside parties as we did before to monitor these and report these, to in a sense get the information out there and, if we can, “name and shame,” so if people take these actions, they have to explain them to their international counterparts. You mentioned the Latin American context. The good news in Latin America is that there has been a silent revolution over the past decade. Latin America is known for some pretty noisy and active revolutions, but the silent revolution has been a change in management of the macroeconomic policies, so the Latin American countries in general came in with better debt positions, better ability to deal with fiscal problems, effective monetary policies, and flexible exchange rates, which adjusted to some of these changes. And there has also been, in a number of the countries, an ongoing effort to engage the benefits for the international system. Much of this--and this is a change--has come from East Asia. Now, part of this, of course, has been driven by commodities--agricultural and mineral. I tend to believe that the agricultural demand will remain high over time. I think this will be a function of increasing incomes. On the mineral and commodity side, as you have seen with copper prices, it is a little uncertain as demand slows. So one of the challenges that we are discussing with Latin American countries is to make sure that their structural reforms further diversify their economies. This also offers some opportunities if you open up services sectors--this is true with China as well--to increase productivity, increase jobs, increase the resilience of your economy. So this would be an excellent area for the international trading system to try to foster. Beyond that, I’ll just say that, of course, Latin America is a very diverse Region, so Central America faces a different set of problems that are linked to narcotics and insecurity, and we are also trying to work very closely on those issues. The Caribbean countries face the problems of small island economies dependent on tourism, repatriation of various types of earnings. There are things that we can do with these economies to try to be of support, but again, I will just come back to the core message. Nobody is going to be immune from the types of tribulations that I outlined here, so we want to work with our Latin American partners to benefit from the steps that they have taken, but I think they also are concerned about the events in Europe and the U.S., and they have to keep an eye on East Asian growth. MR. MILLS: Yes, sir, right in the back. QUESTION: Frank Brandemeier, with the German Press Agency. You noted the spillover effect of the current crisis beginning to impact the emerging markets. What repercussions do you anticipate with regard to the poorest countries and post-conflict countries, and do you expect a further setback on the Millennium Goals? MR. ZOELLICK: I didn’t--your last phrase? QUESTION: Do you expect a further setback with regard to the Millennium Goals.MR. ZOELLICK: The Millennium Goals. Well, it makes all of it harder. The post-conflict countries, the fragile states, have not reached--not one of them has reached one Millennium Development Goal. So the starting point is--you are getting set back from a negative position. For most of those countries, the first concern that I have is food prices, because for many of them, particularly poor, with social instability, food being a large percentage of consumption, this could have a very dangerous effect, and I might add when I met with the heads of the Arab Funds, it is an issue that we need to watch across North Africa and the Middle East as well. Secondly, it depends on the country, but a number of those countries depend on repatriation of earnings, or they have a diaspora, and obviously, those sources of revenue could be less. Third, those countries are dependent on assistance from the Bank and others, and obviously, that is going to be harder to come by in this era. Fourth, for sustainable growth, we have to build effective private sectors, and that means you have to be able to have the source of demand, and initially, that is likely to come from some of the outside marketplaces. So I guess if I could sum it all up, I hear some voices out of the euro zone that say, well, this is an issue for Europeans. I agree it is an issue for Europeans to decide, but it is an issue that affects all of us. MR. MILLS: Okay. I think we have time for one more question. Yes, Phil? QUESTION: Thank you, Richard. Phil Thornton from Emerging Markets. We have seen the succession process take place at the IMF, so to speak, and that-- MR. ZOELLICK: I’m sorry, I missed the first phrase. QUESTION: I was saying that we have seen the succession process at the IMF run its course, and there is now a huge amount of speculation as to whether someone from an emerging or developing market will ever run one of the Bretton Woods Institutions. Your term comes up next summer. I was wondering if you could give your views both from a personal and from the global perspective, please. MR. ZOELLICK: Well, from a personal professional perspective, I have tried to do the best that I could to try to advance emerging market officials into senior roles at the Bank. I had Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who was obviously such a star player that they brought her back to Nigeria as a draft choice; and Sri Mulyani Indrawati has obviously played a critical role in the Indonesian context. It is true at the vice presidential level as well. I think that is one of the best things that I can do as an executive, and it makes us a better institution as well. I might add, since we are focused on the gender topic this week, the fact that we now have over half our officers or above--that is about 50 people--who are women is also something that I think is a good signal for all the institutions. As for my plans, I think the responsible thing to do would be early next year, I will determine what I would like to do, and then I’ll communicate it to the Board and others. As for these institutions in general--you mentioned developing countries not running any of the Bretton Woods Institutions--I guess that depends on your definition, because--it’s a good thing--the heads of a lot of the regional development banks are people from emerging markets. They are first-rate individuals. It shows the cooperation we can build. My only slightly sort of nonconventional wisdom point is that I have spent some 30 years of my professional life trying to encourage the United States to play a larger role in multilateral institutions--they may be the World Bank and the IMF, they may be the WTO, they may be NATO, it may be the creation of APEC--and I think it is a good thing for the United States in some of these institutions to have leadership roles because I’ll just tell you, even in the midst of these Annual Meetings, I have been working with the U.S. Congress to try to build the financial support, and it helps to be able to communicate the perspective of a multilateral institution. So, again, I think this is actually a good sign. With the super committee, I have had a chance to talk with a couple of the Senators privately and emphasize how the fundamental issues that they are dealing with relate to America’s position in the world, and they have used those points. So, it may or may not be the World Bank, but there are politics involved with a lot of these choices, and you haven’t seen a U.S. head of the UN or WTO or IMF and others, so I just think it is important that the U.S. stay engaged in multilateral institutions as well. MR. MILLS: Thank you very much. Thank you. Show Less -